<p>@jkeil911
He likes all three, but I am not sure if he wants me to go to Richmond for $60,000, though Vanderbilt is probably a good enough school (reputation-wise) that it would pose less of a problem. He did finally say that he is going to pay for college, but he has always said one thing one day and another thing the next day on this topic.</p>
<p>I am also going to post my last post on the boards for each of those schools, but I know that people will be making the case for their school there.</p>
<p>Does anyone else have suggestions?</p>
<p>It sounds like you have a bit of family drama. If your father still vacillates daily on his financial commitment, will he hold it over your head at a school like Richmond if you displease him at some point over the next four years? Of your current options, Alabama probably gives you the freedom from family purse strings while getting you where you want to be, academically.
Did you ever get a chance to tour Tulane, and if so what made you drop it down your list?</p>
<p>Yes, I visited Tulane. I dropped it because I did not really feel that I fit in there. They seem to have school spirit, but almost none of it is around sports. It also seemed quite liberal, and if I am going to go to college all the way in Louisiana, I do not want it to be that overrun by New York and New Jersey. New Orleans also leads to a huge emphasis on drinking, and I don’t drink. I did not hate it by any means- the campus is very nice and it does see that students care about their school- (and it may be back in consideration of I get into the Altman program), but I like the other ones better. </p>
<p>If you get that full scholarship for Miami it could be a very enticing offer for someone with aspirations to work in Spanish speaking countries. I would be a bit weary of Richmond if you feel that your father would not pay tuition while you were attending. At this point for you it really might go down to how you felt at each school.</p>
<p>OP, like you my D doesn’t drink, and she was really turned off by what she saw on Bourbon Street. It’s possible she hasn’t seen adults my age and older passed out, let alone passed out in the street. Kind of freaked her out. Then she spent an overnight and there was some drinking there, too. I don’t think it was a deal killer, but I wonder where she thinks she can find a campus where there won’t be intoxicated people her age doing stupid stuff. So she is looking at mid- to large-universities where there are more likely to be non-drinkers or sober drinkers. Tulane and Vandy were the only southern schools to which she applied, and in both of them she’s worried about the drinking. I don’t have any numbers that show there’s more binge drinking or alcohol consumption per capita at southern schools. </p>
<p>@jkeil911</p>
<p>I have long accepted that many students will drink in college. My only concern is how much fun there is to have without drinking at all of these colleges. I was not that concerned about it at Vandy, but it did feel like more of a presence at Tulane (the shuttle driver even asked a prospective student if his orange juice was actually alcoholic). Those types of assumptions led me to believe that there was a lot of drinking and that it was not just light drinking either. But apart from that, I just did not feel at home with the student body at Tulane. I would fit in much better at my other four.</p>