Need to decide now and confused!

<p>Basically, my parents have informed me that I need to make a decision soon about what college to attend, preferably in a week or two. Their reasoning behind this is that I have several excellent to good (not trying to sound pompus here, really) scholarship offers, three of which explictly state that the will releas unclaimed money to other students, and my parents I think I need to do in time for other students to be reached before they make their decisions.</p>

<p>Up until recently, I had put Case Western off my consideration list due to the legendary difficultly of academics and the cost (affordable but by no means cheap). However, I am intrigued by things like internship opprotunities,, location, and social life or lack thereof at the school, though my intial concerns still do stand. Now, my parents more or less say they don't want to me to even look at Case. Their reasoning is two-fold: 1) It doesn;t have a pharmacy school and 2) It's far away from home (not quite a cross-country flight.) </p>

<p>Both my parents really want to me to go to UMontana; it's close to home, it's very affordable, and my mom loved the school when she visited (especially the gift shop). However, I feel my Montana love may be fading a bit. There are things that worry me a lot about the school, such as their low rfreshman retention and grad rates (70, 44), the drinking culture (the sub free dorm is not an option for me because it is inaccessible) and the lack of internship/research opprotunities. My whole family wants me go here, and while I wouldn't mind, part of me feels that my other choices are fundamentally better schools and that I've worked to hard to wind up at open admission state U. I know ranking aren't everything, but the way I figure it, numbers tell you something, and UM's numbers aren't exactly the best.</p>

<p>I have decided that I most likely will not attend URI. Theiir pharmacy program is great, but I just don't feel at home at the schooll socially. Westminster exists as fall back school, but I thinking it might be too small.</p>

<p>Basically, I feel Case is a better school while my parents seem to it is not. Because they control the plane tickets, where I look at is largely dependant on how they feel about the school, and they have pretty much decided I shouldn't go far away (which I kind of agree with and kind of don't).</p>

<p>Ouch, wolfpiper. Academically, Case Western is definitely the top choice. I don't know how expensive it would be compared to UM, especially when factoring costs; nor do I know about issues of access and accommodation which are important to you. But it has an excellent reputation and I believe you could pursue your several interests there quite well. How far away would t be for you? Is there something you could do to reassure your parents that you would be well taken care of, such as enlisting the help of the office of disability services, perhaps? Or pointing to the higher graduation rate at Case as a sign that there is more support there for students than at UM?</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>Yes you are going to have to decide sooner or later, but didn't we learn that you have until May 1? </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=135238&highlight=scholarship%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=135238&highlight=scholarship&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Don't let the colleges give you an artificial early deadline, and your parents shouldn't do it either. So "a couple of weeks" is mid April anyway, but don't rush it!</p>

<p>You might want to reassure your parents that, while yes, colleges will pass on merit aid to someone else if you don't use it, they won't do anything until THEIR (not your parent's) deadline has passed. So you do no favors to anyone by deciding earlier on.</p>

<p>In practice, colleges have a good idea how many will accept or reject their admissions with merit aid. Indeed, much as they admit more than they can take (the yield issue) the same concept applies to scholarship offers. They offer more than they plan to pay, knowing that some will not accept.</p>

<p>So relax, and don't be rushed into a premature decision.</p>

<p>You might try techniques from this thread
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=51596%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=51596&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>