<p>i'm trying to finalize my college list (i'm a junior) and find a few more financial safeties, and i was wondering what you guys think on what matter more, being in love with a college or getting a great deal. i've found a lot of colleges that i love, and they meet all need but don't give a lot of merit, which i need. i'm pretty much guaranteed to be a national merit finalist, so should i start looking into schools that will give me a free ride? my main concern is that most of these schools are bigger than i want, but do you think that it's worth it if they allow me to attend for a lot less? i mean, ideally i'll find a college that i really like that will give me good aid, but i don't know if that's going to happen, so what do you think i should focus on? should i focus more on finding a college that's going to be a great deal, or that's going to give me the best education and the best environment?
thanks for your opinions! :)</p>
<p>anyone have any thoughts on this?</p>
<p>It is pretty obvious that you have to take both into consideration. Trade off on cost is common and practical. It is easy to find lots of schools you love if cost isn’t a factor. Yes, you should investigate schools that give you free ride–you are only investigating now and making first draft list, or even short list that gives you a veriety of options. Not picking yet.</p>
<p>See if some of those large schools have Honors colleges, I bet they do and you can learn how they operate and if they give a feel of a school-within-a-school, to give you a more intimate experience.</p>
<p>Also look at schools known for giving merit aid. Many of these are smaller and up to 10k a year is not uncommon for someone at the top of the applicant pool. </p>
<p>Have you discussed with your parents how much they can spend on your college and if it is a strain or not?</p>
<p>
Life is filled with tradeoffs, as a previous pointer mentioned. However if financially there are schools you can’t swing financially, then don’t even apply. I assume you’ve sat down with your parents and ran one of the EFC calculators, then they blinked at the number and said “no way!”. Hence the need for merit aid. So focus your efforts on finding good schools that want a student like you. </p>
<p>As I’m sure you realize, they give you the merit aid to induce you to attend a school where you’re going to be one of the top students and not because they just happen to want to reward smart kids. So that is going to have an effect on what your education is like, but to a large degree you can mitigate this by making an effort to get to know profs, engage in research if that’s appropriate for your interests, join clubs, etc.</p>
<p>thanks for your feedback 
i think my main problem with looking into cheaper schools is that because many of them are so big, i’m having a really tough time finding out about the personality of the school- do larger schools just tend to be more average, kind of with something for everybody? i was hoping for a school with a distinct personality, kind of alternative but still intellectual. are there large schools with these kinds of personalities, or do they tend to be generally the same?</p>
<p>it depends on the whole of your application, your academic background and most important the colleges policies… there are a lot of institutions that provides financail aid for almost every kinds of applicants…
My advice first find safeties that you can imagine yourself as a student there and then check the availiable financail aid options.
Best Luck,</p>