<p>University of Puget Sound:</p>
<p>With scholarships/grants they gave me, COA will be $15,000/year.</p>
<p>Pacific Lutheran University:</p>
<p>Again, with scholarships/grants, COA will be $12,000/year.</p>
<p>I'd live at home for both UPS and PLU, at least for the first year or two.</p>
<p>Or, I could apply to University of Washington-Seattle for the winter quarter. I wanted an LAC, but I'd probably get a scholarship of some sort, that would bring the COA of $20,000 down...probably to about the same price (that's a total guess, BTW).</p>
<p>What would you do? I'll have to be paying some of this off...probably the max stafford loans.</p>
<p>Contact the admissions and financial aid offices at UW-Seattle today and ask whether you could still get in for the fall, and if so what your aid package might look like.</p>
<p>Then, pick up the phone and make an appointment with the admissions office at your local community college. Ask them about articulation agreements with these three universities. Can you do the first two years of your major at the community college and be guaranteed a transfer into the second two years at fill-in-name-here-U? Since you will be commuting anyway, this would probably be the least expensive way to get through the first two years of your education.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>Do you want to live at home or go to Seattle, even though it is certainly not a LAC and would cost more? UW does not give out much in scholarship money and it has gotten difficult to get into, especially if you do not apply early. Will they even take transfers in the winter these days?</p>
<p>UPS is probaly the ‘better’ school but it depends on what you want to do and if the cost difference between UPS and PLU is significant for you. If you want to go to UW, the community college for 2 years suggestion is not a bad idea if you will be living at home to attend the Tacoma schools anyway.</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision!</p>