<p>I agree with everything fc said, but I’ll try to give you an answer anyway (sorta).</p>
<p>If one of your options is free and it meets your needs, then unless your family is very wealthy, you need a pretty good justification to pick a high cost college. “Awesome city” is not good enough. Either NCF are SMCM would be much cheaper than Tulane; they also offer very good academics.</p>
<p>SMCM is a beautiful school. The archaelogical site at neighboring St. Mary’s City may interest you. Still, SMCM would be nearly $20K/year more for an OOS student than NCF for an in-state student. I would not expect a small public school like SMCM to offer very good aid (need based or merit) to an OOS student unless your qualifications are very strong compared to other applicants.</p>
<p>If you strongly prefer either SMCM or Tulane to your in-state options, you can always apply and see whether aid makes a difference. Other good schools for anthro include Bryn Mawr (women only) and Beloit. Either one may give you better aid than SMCM (though the full-pay costs are higher). If you want to consider some of the very top schools for anthropology, check out Michigan, Chicago, and Berkeley (all more selective than the 4 you named), or at least keep them on your radar for grad school.</p>
<p>But again, fc’s comment about majors does ring true (because so many students change majors at least once).</p>