My daughter was admitted to both Santa Clara U. and NYU, with SCU offering a better financial aid package and with regards to weather, Santa Clara being in California can’t be beat. We live 20 minutes from Santa Clara as well. She plans to major in English. Which school is a better choice? Please feel free to comment. Would love to hear your opinions.
My daughter somewhat reluctantly committed to SCU yesterday, we also live in the area. Wanting the life experience of living elsewhere was the primary hesitation in the decision. She had some great choices in North Carolina and Washington. In the end, it is a great school, the contacts in this area are fabulous and for her major (CS&E) the program is amazing. With others in college, I won’t miss the long haul of getting her and her things back and forth. We figure she can study abroad or find an internship somewhere else, find other opportunities during the summers that can take her elsewhere and give her the out of Norcal experiences she desires. For her future (which comes in 4 very fast years) if she wants to be in this area which she does at this point, we couldn’t pass up the connections SCU provides. Not to focus on anything negative but our feeling on the east coast was if something went bad, she is very far away. Also selfishly, I’ll be honest and say I prefer she didn’t settle that far away which is more likely given the opportunity. Of course it is her life to live and it could still happen and I would deal…(but we lived away from our families my entire married life, it was tough at times and my kids never really knew their grandparents/extended family.) Wish I could chime in on NYU, but I don’t know anything to contribute about that. But it would certainly be a different lifestyle and adventure. Good luck, it is great when the decision is done.
@GTOCali - any decision??? Bit stressed at your house if not! Best to you, can’t believe after all this time I wish we would have had another week or two, but we could have used it. All turned out, after a couple days, student completely happy with decision. Even ran out and bought a bunch of SCU gear. 
We had somewhat the same dynamic as what CADreamin experienced. Also about 20 minutes away from SCU, was trying to choose between SCU and SMU in Dallas. Both great Business Schools for Accounting that are National Target Schools for the Big 4. I was actually hoping my son would go further away to Dallas, but he decided to stay closer by (which came as a bit of a surprise since he had consistently voiced a desire to experience something different). But the allure of Silicon Valley connections into Google/Apple were just too enticing for him to ignore. We also came to the conclusion that he could experience a different location via internships and study abroad opportunities.
We’re also all now ecstatic about the decision, and it does make my life as a dad easier as CADreamin stated :).
Congrats @norcaldad888! With two others away at college I can say it was great to book the orientation session this summer and not have to plan for a long drive/flight and hotel expenses. That’s at least a thousand bucks we would have spent that we can put toward SCU tuition. My daughter is proudly wearing the SCU gear and feels great about the decision now too. Is yours dorming it the first year?
@CADreamin, yes my son is dorming (we promised the full college experience even though he’s so close by). Promised 2 years housing on/by campus and then we would reassess for Junior/Senior years. We also went this past weekend to pick up some SCU gear. I was impressed at the selection for such a small school with no football team, quite the school spirit! Is your daughter dorming or staying at home?
@norcaldad888. Daughter is dorming for sure, we made same deal. We also think about those later years maybe saving some housing money - not a bad plan, we’ll see. I think our overall commitment to SCU mirrored yours almost exactly! What has been great is the reaction when she tells people where she is going - everyone replies with “great school!” She was almost too familiar with the school (we have spent a lot of time there - kids played tennis on those courts) so she didn’t realize how quality it was. Feedback has been helpful and frankly, just getting the decision made was huge. Big cloud gone! Right before the 1st we went out and did a casual walk around and found amazing new places - many work/study areas with accessible computers, the theatre part of campus - we hadn’t seen that, areas ya don’t see on the tours. It’s pretty darn sweet. At last we have peace