<p>A bird in the hand is worth…</p>
<p>The OSU scholarship sounds like a very good one. If you’re intersted in other colleges then you can still apply to those and see what kind of scholarship/need-based aid you get at those before deciding. Don’t assume you’ll get scholarships and various colleges because of your grades/test scores/volunteering. You might but you might not - you won’t know until you receive the offer from the particular college. </p>
<p>If you want to go to a college where you’ll have to pay part or all of the cost, you’ll need a plan of how you (or your family) will pay for it. It’s an important practical step that needs to be done.</p>
<p>A few other points -
- Nowhere in Ohio is that far from anywhere else in Ohio. Cleveland to Columbus is around a 2.5 hour drive. That’s not very far to be able to do occasional visits back home or for them to visit you. They could come see you on a Sauturday, take you out to lunch, and return home the same day. I assume your family has a car.
- With a larger school you have more of a chance of meeting people compatible with you - not less. If you have some anxiety around crowds of people realize that even at a small school there are a suffucient number of students that you’d have to deal with this. It won’t make any difference if there’s a few thousand students on a small campus vs. 25K (or whatever) students spread out on a large campus.
- A DBA usually isn’t something one receives a degree in. For that area you might be interested in ‘Information Systems’ rather than CS. OSU offers it.
- The BF - it’d be a mistake to base any of your college decision on the BF which is why your parents are concerned about it. You indicate you’re not, which is good. The BF doesn’t just disappear just because you’re in a different city attending college (unless you or he wants to).</p>