<p>If you like the co-op, 5 year experience, consider Drexel. I don't have their statistics, but a friend of ours turned down Ivy for a free ride there - some of the scholarship money was tied into his musical talent. I believe you only pay tuition for the 6 months you're in school, not the 6 months working. H's firm hires from their coop program consistantly. They've also just opened a west coast campus, so you might be able to spend a year in California to check life out there. And the cost of living in Philadelphia is much less than Boston.</p>
<p>Might you also consider community college? I went to one for the first two years, as did my husband, and we both got great educations and saved a lot of money. I left undergrad with only $3000 in loans - a drop in the bucket. There's no stigma associated really with this path anymore - my husband went on to a terrific medical school and I was accepted with funding to grad school. Especially if you're not really sure what path you want to take, community college is a good option.</p>
<p>I know a young man going to Kalamazoo with stats very similar to yours and financially in about the same boat. He got about 50% from K and he's a Michigander so he doesn't "add" to the out of state mix. He has managed to piece together the balance each year through jobs, etc. He will have debt when he graduates but not to the tune of $80,000. You might look at Kalamazoo since you are interested in an LAC. It would give you the opportunity to have a couple years and an internship or two before you needed to commit to a major or career path. Kalamazoo would enable you to get home more often and presumably travel would be easier. It's an excellent school that doesn't get as much "press" here as some of the other LACs. Kalamazoo still has excellent stats into grad programs nationwide if you needed/wanted to go that route.</p>
<p>Like Iggle, I was going to suggest taking a look at Drexel.</p>
<p>My son looked at both Drexel and RIT. My understanding was that at Drexel you DO pay tuition during the work experience but not at RIT. Both schools seem to have a problem with student morale perhaps due to tech heavy student body. RIT is not in the city of Rochester, so should be less expensive it also has a quirky arts and sciences college: <a href="http://www.rit.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.rit.edu/</a></p>