I Need Help Choosing A College

So I have kind of run into a wall choosing a college. I have all awesome options but I have no clue which to choose. I want to pursue a PhD and intend to major in physics. While in college I would like to take history and french classes and some applied mathematics alongside my major. I also would really like to leave Texas and I cannot drive so those are some other considerations. Ok so here are my options:

Reed College, Oberlin College, UT Plan II and Brandeis University.

Cost wise, Oberlin gave me 30k in scholarships, UT Plan II is just under 30k, I got into the QBREC Program at Brandeis so that was 17.5k scholarship, and Reed comes in at a sublime 9k scholarship making Reed cost around 53k a year.

I understand that no one here will have gone to all of these schools but I cannot decide. I’d love to go to Reed because Portland and it’s the best school to do an undergraduate if you want to pursue a PhD after, at the same time I don’t know if the price tag is worth it. Overall I think I would be happy anywhere, the only school that is falling behind in the race is Brandeis because, from what I have hear it has bad food and bad dorms, even if the academics are amazing.

I realize posting how much aid the schools gave me is not particularly helpful so a bit more info:

Reed College: 53k/yr + 5.5k loan/yr
Oberlin College: 39k/yr
UT: 27k/yr
Brandeis University: 45k/yr + 5.5k loan/yr

Also I would want to do my graduate school and PhD in France.

As someone who is on Reed’s Waitlist and dying to be accepted, I will try to answer you how I would deal with this scenario in the most unbiased way that I possibly can.

I also intend to pursue a PhD, but being quite honest here, any of these schools would do just fine for you if want to get a PhD. Something that I have heard many times is that what matters most is the courses you take and the recommendations, and I doubt that any of these schools could have something so outstanding that would outshine the others. All of them are excellent colleges. However, I do understand that you might feel some different attraction to Reed, so If I were you I would try to contact the FA department and tell your situation. Talk about how you imagine yourself at Reed and studying Physics… things like that. Maybe they might take a like to you?? Who knows…

I think that “the best school for PhD” does not really exists in your scenario, so relax and understand that you will do just fine in any of them. When you do understand that try to choose a college based on Financial aid and Fit.

I think you have some great choices and don’t know much about the others but do know that Oberlin sounds like it would be a great fit and the money you got from them is great! Are you going to All Roads or have you visited?

My D will be a first year this fall and she visited last fall and loved the school and town. I was surprised at how many intended science majors I met at the recent accepted students reception so you would have a big peer group at Oberlin.

Good luck!

Oberlin sounds like the best choice in terms of value.
All of your colleges are great for future graduate studies, even if Reed has an advantage it’s not a great difference.
So the question becomes : can your parents afford 53k?
If Reed is your top choice and you’re sure you’ll attend, you can contact them and present them with the Oberlin offer, explaining that the difference is such that you feel they may be able to use professional judgement. Explain you’re certain to attend Reed if the costs aren’t as different as they are now. Send in all financial information (mandatory expenses, circumstances. …) that may have been skipped over.

Reed is need based only. They are no scholarships and they will only look at your finances. What is interesting is that Oberlin has the same policy as far as I can tell. No scholarships, need based only. This means that there is a difference in how they are looking at your finances on the CSS. One of the factors that differs significantly between colleges is home equity. I would specifically take the offer from Oberlin and ask why this school specifically offered more aid than Reed since they have the same financial aid policies of 100% demonstrated need. It is the word demonstrated here that matters.

Reed wont allow reconsideration based on other schoool’s offers. I tried that last year, but those schools offered merit as well as full need based aid. Oberlin does not. I would contact FA and ask about this specifically.

@LKnomad Oberlin gives merit awards. My d got one and we were not eligible for financial aid.

Oberlin has a strong physics department. When my d was deciding, my BIL, who was a professor at a large state research university, mentioned that they were trying to recruit an Oberlin grad to their PhD program, but felt they were going to lose out to a more highly ranked school.

@VAOptimist I stand corrected. I looked through the site and didn’t see it.

Because Reed does not have merit aid, I think the best way to challenge is to show a need based offer only. They made it quite clear to us that they won’t look at other offers. My son’s other, and slightly higher offers also included merit, so I couldn’t sell it. If I had an offer that was from a need based school only, I might have.

As much as I love and support Reed, I can’t recommend you choose it over Oberlin for what looks like at least $80K additional cost over 4 years. Oberlin is probably worth it over UT, especially given your desire to get out of Texas.