<p>^Don’t see any harm in asking and referencing the full ride, but if the schools are not exactly peers, that may carry little weight. If the environments and rigor are remotely comparable and the student is the type to thrive in any environment and knows they’ll want to go to grad school, it would make sense to avoid the loan burden if possible. (Eg. undergrad locale diminishes in significance if the student can be accepted at a good grad program.) Even the “direct and unsubs only” loans add up to a repayment schedule of about $280 a month over 10 years – not a horrific amount but daunting enough to grad school students!</p>