<p>need help!
So basically the last few months have been full of stress and parents constantly asking questions. I got into my dream school but found out that making a choice isnt just based on where one wants to go. I got into the following colleges:</p>
<p>Now I am looking at Notre Dame, UVA, Clemson, Texas a&m, and WashU. Financial cost is a huge part of the choice. Notre Dame is 50 grand and WashU is very expensive. I am probably not going to demonstrate financial need but cannot afford(to my knowledge) to pay for one of those. Therefore my decision lies with UVA, ND, both of which havent offered any, Clemson, and TAMU. Looking at my situation what do you think? TAMU offered basically full ride and Clemson waived out of state and gave an additonal 1,000. I would be in honors program at TAMU or Clemson.</p>
<p>I'm really sorry but the only one of those schools I applied to was WashU and I got deferred, so I didn't visit it. The rest of the schools I know absolutely nothing about.</p>
<p>what if 50 grand is our EFC? Plus I have a full ride to Texas a&M. Do you still suggest ND? And I have seen ND, WashU, and Texas A&M. Really it is between TAMU, ND, Clemson, VA.</p>
<p>Are you saying that $50 thousand is your EFC at Notre Dame? That's hard to believe. If that is true, your parents must be multi-millionaires and could afford the $50 Gs. No, I do not think Notre Dame is worth $50 Gs out-of-pocket unless the family has very, very deep pockets.</p>
<p>UVA is the best cost to reputation ratio of those schools. It is a great school in almost all disciplines. I can't speak of the other schools. Clemson is a science and engineering school, as is TAMU.</p>
<p>No my parents are not multimillionares but the financial letter only let me do work study and the $5000 loan. I was surprised but found that after talking to ND if your family makes over $100,000 you probably will not get aid. However, my parents put most all money back into their new business and cannot afford that. Is it worth taking out loans..should I go to UVA with less loans, or A&M full ride?</p>
<p>Undergrad does not matter that much. What matters is where u do ur masters. at least thats the way it works for business. Id go to TAMU on full ride and save urself the money for grad school which is expensive</p>
<p>how can you expect complete strangers to pick a school for you when they don't have the slightest idea what you want in college?</p>
<p>Do you want to live in a small town or large? A place where everyone lives off-campus or in the dorms? Class size you want? Advising system you want? There's easily a dozen factors or more that go into fit, and you haven't raised any of them. Finances are critical, too; don't go to a school that will impoverish you, or you might find its worth trading off some of your preferences for a much lower cost. </p>
<p>But IMHO the reason you face a dilemma is because you have no criteria so far (except maybe prestige) for making a decision; not a good way to go ...</p>
<p>I apologize for not listing criteria. I prefer smaller over bigger. ND size was perfect whereas the University of Illinois was too large and unpersonal for me. Honestly town doesnt matter as long as there is plenty to do on campus. I dislike classes of 100s but the public universities' honor programs really shrink colleges. I am looking for school that ranks highly in business and engineering and that is realistic for my future. Please give me some feedback.</p>
<p>UVA has a decent rep in engineering and a real good rep in business. One thing bad about the engineering school: not allowed to use calculators in math classes until Jr year. My son was totally lost trying to do calculus by hand, so he is now a business major instead of engineering.</p>
<p>UVA is also one of the smallest state flagship U's in the country, I believe about 14,000</p>