My DS wanted to do IR, and would have loved to live in Wash. DC. He got into American with a small merit scholarship, and another place in Pittsburgh with a bigger merit scholarship. So he went to the other place, and did his school’s Washington DC semester program, with additional merit money for that. We figure, he can always go to DC for grad school. Also this semester made clear to us that DC is much more expensive than Pittsburgh for housing – we suspect American, which was already budget-busting, would have been much worse than anticipated financially.
No regrets about his decision so far.
But, I will say, he really didn’t care for Bard when we visited, and he didn’t apply. It seemed quite isolated.