@austinmshauri I agree with you about thinking carefully. That involves looking at the downside and the upside. It’s very easy to castrophize the downside so that it appears more likely than it actually is. This type of fear often prevents people from taking calculated but often worthwhile risks. I see that all the time here on CC. The upside one has more control over, though I am not minimizing the risks. This is indeed a difficult decision.
The choice between wasting a year in hope of a scholarship that closes the aid gap vs. taking on a bit of debt to attend an excellent school to get you to where you want to go is not an easy one and there are risks in both directions.