<p>I enjoy receiving college acceptance letters and thinking about the possibility of my going there. I applied to 8 colleges, but now I'm undecided as to what to do. Whenever I ask someone about how the college is, everyone say's the same things: The college is fun, lots of clubs, teachers are great etc.... Academically, it doesn't seem that there is much of a difference from one school to another either. </p>
<p>Schools I have applied to:</p>
<p>USF (florida)
UCF
UF
FSU
New College
Boston U
Univ. of Nebraska
Syracuse</p>
<p>I can realistically get into all of these schools and have already been accepted to USF and UCF. I don't know how to pick which school to go to. All of my friends are going to USF and I will have a great friend to room with if I go there, but I just.... don't know. I feel guilty for not choosing to go to a more nationally recognized school or a school with more school pride. </p>
<p>How do you guys go about making your college decisions?</p>
<p>If you need financial aid to make some of those places affordable for your family, it is pretty usual to just wait until all of the aid packages are on the table in April. Then, after comparing costs, if the most affordable options are places the student hasn’t visited, usually an effort will be made to visit those places before making a final decision. </p>
<p>All of the institutions on your list are recognized nationally for one thing or another, and the students at each of them surely have plenty of school pride. Your list is perfectly fine.</p>
<p>But I do have to ask this: Do you have personal experience with the kind of winter that you would face in Boston, Lincoln, or Syracuse? Do not underestimate the bitter cold of Nebraska, or the heaps of snow possible in Massachusetts and upstate NY. For some people from Florida, that is more adventure than they can handle.</p>
<p>Well I can’t pay a dime. I have no money, I only have one parent and 2 other sisters who need to get taken care of so money is of the essence. I understand your arguments against OOS but i am in IB and Nebraska gives it’s IB freshmen a $44k scholarship once admitted. Also Boston has given the last few accepted kids in my school $80k scholarships so it was worth the effort to at least apply. Thing is, I will know what $ all schools offer late in the admission game, housing will be very limited at that stage and it scares me.</p>
<p>$11k per year at UNebraska is not enough. It’s not even free tuition. If it were, then you could use Pell (if qualified), a student loan to cover the rest, and work study to cover the rest.</p>
<p>Are you low income? If so, and you have a 0 EFC, then you’d get a 5550 pell grant…</p>
<p>What are your SAT/ACT and GPA stats? Include SAT breakdown.</p>
<p>Frankly, it’s very hard for lowish income kids who aren’t attending full -need/low/no loan schools to go very far away to school. The cost to move in, move out, and come home for holidays is often too much for the family to afford and there’s no aid for that.</p>