<p>You'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.</p>
<p>I was in this position, but I'm afraid I have no advice about dealing with it... frankly, I'm still bitter, almost two years later.</p>
<p>I don't have to let go of my #1 school...because I JUST GOT ACCEPTED TO IT!!!!!!</p>
<p>if you are upset to give up #1... i didn't get in to my #1 school which i was really upset about, but now that i'm at my #3 choice now I really could care less about that #1 I think if you have several schools you like, you will probably be really happy at any one of them. Also, keep an open mind about financial aid. I know I basically had to mostly let it determine where I ended up too, but again, if you choose a bunch of schools you like...</p>
<p>well i have "top two" that are expensive and i just got into UIUC....believe i'm extremely happy...but i really would like to get out of IL.
financial aids will prob help me but my grades and test scores are not all that great so i'm not counting on getting merit scholarships.
i also want to leave enough for my sister (2 yrs younger) to go to college as well.</p>
<p>fiddlefrog, where had you hoped to go?</p>
<p>I had no clear #1 choice throughout the application process. I think that's a healthy way to do it.</p>
<p>I turned down my first choice. For financial aid reasons as well.</p>
<p>I ended up going to my second choice, and probably saved myself an extra 60K by going there.</p>
<p>In all honesty, you're bummed out when you can't attend your first choice after getting in! But to be honest the whole college admissions process builds up the hype of attending your first choice. College is what you make of it, and I"m pretty sure you will, like i did, enjoy whatever school you decide to attend even if it's not your first choice. It's not worth attending your first choice school if you're going to have to get into debt for it, when an equally as good institution is giving you more aid.</p>
<p>By summer time, when getting ready for school, you forget you rejected your first choice. you'll just be to preoccupied and/or excited to start college in general.</p>
<p>A couple of suggestions. First - see if you can do an overnight or weekend at the second and third choice schools. I've heard of kids realizing the first choice was not the best real life match. Pretend the number one choice did not exist and focus on positives. Write down all the negatives about #1. If you cannot think of any then you do not know anything about the school - just your image of it. There is no school, parent, kid, partner, car or pet that is perfect.
Second. All schools I've dealt with, public and private, will consider an appeal on financial aid. Some may give you a little more, some a good bit more. You can appeal the results of the appeal too. Do that ASAP.
Here is a bit of info on the process, from the collegeboard website.
<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/ways-to-pay/485.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/ways-to-pay/485.html</a></p>