I would go with Richmond. You’ll son will get a good education and graduate with no debt, and you won’t be supporting the socialist state schools.
This has been a really fun and informative thread to follow. I too loved the saga of the spider essay! Congrats to Chris, UR sounds like an awesome opportunity 
@lr4550 , @MYOS1634 , and @informative Thanks! Yes, it has been quite a journey with lots of stress along the way. I never expected him to get such a wonderful offer from Richmond, and I’m just so happy that he loves the school. It just worked out perfectly!
I love these Win-win stories. Keeping an open mind and continually processing all the information, including the budget. Best wishes for the best UG experiences.
@SOSConcern Thanks so much! I feel really lucky and grateful that it turned out this way. And I’ve learned so much; the whole process will be easier with my next child who will be going off to college in five years. Whew!
@chris17mom Congratulations to your son! I have been following your story closely from the beginning since my son is a junior with similar stats. Also, loved the spider story. Thanks for sharing your sons outcomes especially with merit as that will help those in the upcoming classes.
@collegemom2boys Thanks! I feel so lucky that we got this outcome. 
This was my first child going off to college and I felt pretty clueless throughout the process. We ended up applying to 14 schools, and I realize now that at least 4 of those were probably unnecessary. But I’m so glad the U of Richmond ended up on that list! And fortunately, after visiting, my son liked Richmond the best out of all his affordable options, so things just worked out perfectly!
I’m glad to hear that you are starting this process now, during your son’s junior year. I wish we had started junior year; especially for doing the research and visits. If you can narrow down a number of schools where you know your son will be in the running for merit scholarships (Tulane, U Miami, U Richmond, are a few we looked at, but there are many more), and then add in a true safety school or two (and make sure your son really likes the safety school!), and then some high reaches if he wants, you should be in good shape! I do think that casting a wide net will yield better results, however “shotgunning” didn’t seem to work too well for the students who tried it, and there is a lot of extra stuff you have to stay on top of at each of these schools, when you are going for extra scholarships, etc. So I think 10 schools is a good number to shoot for, and probably anything over 15 schools would get unmanageable. (14 was barely manageable for us.)
This information is already on this site in several places, but here is a link I saw today that shows some schools with merit scholarships: http://thecollegematchmaker.com/111-ridiculously-awesome-full-tuition-schoarships/
Good luck!
So DS is attending U Richmond? Give us the 411 on how the affordability worked out, his major, and the appealing points of UR. That could help other families.
@chris17mom What a great thread. Congrats on the full ride for your son. Sounds like a great opportunity for him. I took an interest since one of my daughters is a Boatwright recipient (full tuition) and U of R is in her final five, up against U of AL, U of OK, Pitt, and UB. She has a full ride at UB, but it’s too close to home and she hates the campus. U of AL and U of OK had impressive enrollments of NMF, which she is. But not sure a big Sports School in the South is a good fit for an nerdy, academic East Coast girl. She probably won’t go to Pitt because her sister already accepted a full ride offer there. She visited Richmond on her own for a couple days with other scholarship recipients and it sounds like the perfect environment for her, so we’re kinda hoping that is where she’ll end up. Getting down to the wire now. Should know her decision tonight!
@SOSConcern Yes! After all the acceptances, rejections, and offers came in, my son ended up with five affordable offers:
U of Richmond - full ride
U of Alabama - $3500 COA
U of Arizona - $10,000 COA
Arizona State U - $16,000 COA
U of Miami - $17,000 COA
We have visited all these schools and I actually think he would have done fine at any of them, but lucky for me (from a financial perspective) he felt that Richmond was the best fit! It is just a really nice school, lovely campus, very involved and caring faculty, lots of perks to being a Richmond Scholar, and we have a lot of family in Virginia. So, with the great financial package it was kind of a no-brainer decision for him. He will be majoring in Computer Science, and Richmond doesn’t exactly specialize in that major, however they do have a fairly robust CS department for a liberal arts school, and the faculty we met with was great. I’m not sure he will even stick with CS, but if he does, he can certainly consider a more techy school for grad school, should he go that route. All in all, Richmond was just a great match for him, and he is excited about starting there in the fall!
@OffTheyGo Wow, sounds like Richmond might be the best match for your daughter too! We really liked Bama, but I think my son is more comfortable in a smaller environment. He’s not really that keen on big sports, etc., and I think he felt a little overwhelmed by the size of Bama, though the honors department is definitely great, and a much smaller group, to be sure. Also, it was raining both times he was there, and I have to wonder if that affected his choice. I think if he had not gotten such a generous offer from Richmond he might have ended up at Bama. But Richmond was a great fit for him, and with a great price it was a pretty easy choice. 
Richmond is full of kids like this! It sounds like UB and Pitt are pretty much off the list, so if she is choosing between Bama, U of Ok, or Richmond, she just needs to think about fit. Does she want a big university with lots of school spirit and sports, or does she want a small liberal arts environment with a lovely, close-knit campus, and very attentive faculty. I was actually kind of surprised to find out that my son preferred the latter! In any case, she’s got great choices so she really can’t go wrong!
Good luck!
@chris17mom, the decision is in. Looks like your son and my daughter are going to be classmates. The smaller LAC environment, impressive fellow scholars, gorgeous campus, and city of Richmond really won her over. Actually I think she chose it for the food, which she raved about for days. I guess they really pulled out all the stops with the food on that scholars weekend. So happy for her and for your son. Go Spiders!
@OffTheyGo Haha, that is so funny about the food! My son spent so much time in the cafeteria over the scholars weekend and even took pictures of the food! I do think that played a big role in his decision too! So glad to hear they will be classmates! I think they both made a great choice!
I can understand the desire to choose a particular school over another with the student using criteria important to them, and having good educational opportunities at all the choices. I hope it all works out well at UR for both students @chris17mom and @offtheygo .
@SOSConcern Thanks! Hopefully both kiddos will be happy with their choices!