<p>Well, I find that surprising that your family would be willing to move just to pay less on tuition at a school. One thing to definitely look into is whether Berkeley would consider you instate if you move there after a certain point. I think there are rules saying you have to live or pay taxes or something like that in that state for a set period of time before you are actually considered instate.</p>
<p>I also live in Minnesota and was in that same Ivy's or Honors situation and I did select the U of M because of the price. You are basically in the same situation that I was so I definitely think that Carlson would be a safety school, and you'll probably get some sort of general merit scholarship at least. I had a 4.0 UW, 33 ACT, good EC's, and I believe 8-9 AP classes. I ended up getting 5K/year in general merit, 5K freshman year from Carlson, and two other scholarships not from the U which covered the rest of the cost.</p>
<p>One other thing to consider regarding the choice is what career you actually what to get into. A lot of people on this board want to go into i-banking because it pays a lot, and it's extremely difficult to break into the field unless you go to certain schools. I believe Cornell, Umich, and NYU are some of those schools. However, if you are not one of those people, I would urge you to consider how much value you're getting at those schools, especially Berkeley and Umich. They are both public just like the U, so although they are different from the U in many ways, you'll still have some large classes and all the other bad things that come with big public schools. I'm not saying they're bad because they're not by any means, but I would say they aren't worth paying so much extra if you'll end up getting a normal finance job. Your salary may start a couple thousand $ higher than the U, but that would really be the only career advantage if you end up at just a normal finance job.</p>
<p>I regards to the honors program, each school used to have its own honors program, but they're changing it starting next year with my class to just one university wide honors program. You can choose to live in honors housing which i've heard is nice since you get to see a lot of people who are actually in your classes. Also, it's in Middlebrook which has semi-private bathrooms (one bathroom shared between two rooms) which i'm assuming will be a lot better and less gross than sharing a bathrooms with the whole floor. You can take honors classes which are a lot smaller, so that should be really nice. You then have to fulfill a certain number of honors opportunities each year. That could be taking honors courses, studying abroad, doing an internship etc., and I believe they help a lot more with setting up a study abroad opportunity or finding an internship. I'm still not super clear about all the advantages because I will be a freshman next fall, but I do know that I would not be going to the U unless I was in it. The class size thing and ability to actually speak with the professor was a big factor for me.</p>
<p>So thats what I know. Just post if you want me to clarify something. Certainly , I don't want you to turn down a place that you really want to attend in order to come to the U, i'm just saying it is a good school. Growing up, I never really considered going to the U, because I didn't think it was that great of a school, but at some point I found out it is a very good school and is considered to be very good by others. Those are a few things to consider. Even if you don;t really want to go there, you should feel good about it being a great school that is a safety for you and that you could attend very cheaply.</p>