<p>Let me preface this by saying that I think OSU is a fine school and the honors college will give you a top notch education and based on what I have heard will make the very large U seem a bit smaller and more intimate. More and more students from our competitive public HS are attending every year. Many of my D’s very smart friends are attending next year. Some turned down places like Williams to attend (mostly about the $ I think but also decided a bigger U environment was better for that particular student.)</p>
<p>However, my D and several of her friends also got really wonderful merit offers from a variety of private colleges (both LACs and larger) that made those even more affordable than OSU. For instance, one of D’s friends got almost full tuition from George Washington University - combo of merit and FA. Denison is known to give out a lot of merit (and will stack their named institutional merit grants on top of need based aid). Also, Denison is a FAFSA only school. Nearly everyone we know was offered at least 20K in grants and Denison has several $40K per year renewable scholarships. Our friend who attends Denison now turned down U Chicago to attend on one of those scholarships and is thrilled so far with her experience. College of Wooster was also generous to D’s friends. </p>
<p>Your stats look quite good and you just never know what will happen with the $. As long as you apply to at least one school that you know you can afford and will like (and that looks to be OSU), then you will be in good shape. You might want to apply to a few more colleges (especially if you think that you would prefer a smaller environment) just so that you can compare offers in the spring. As long as you let your head rule your decision making in the end you will be fine.</p>