<p>I have a dilemma and I'm really tweaking out about it. Yikes.</p>
<p>Sooo I'm a native Long Islander who goes to boarding school upstate, and Columbia has been my dream school for years now. During the summer I visited the University of Chicago and loved it too.</p>
<p>Now, as most college-savvy people might already know, Chicago has early action while Columbia has early decision. I know I'm applying EA to Chicago, but I'm really undecided about when I should apply to Columbia. (Or I guess whether to apply at all...) My college counselor tells me that my chances at Columbia are very strong if I do ED, but she has doubts if I apply RD because of my location. She thinks I'm in at Chicago and that I'd even have a shot at one of their merit scholarships.</p>
<p>The thing is that cost is an issue for me and I don't want to do ED at Columbia and get my family locked into an agreement we can't quite afford. I will get some FA for sure but I've heard that FA departments at different schools can come up with VERY different EFCs... I think it wouldn't be a big problem if I could just decide which school was my clear first choice. I know if Columbia was my first choice and I got in ED, we'd find a way to pay for whatever the cost.</p>
<p>I felt really welcome at Chicago, though, much more than at Columbia. All the Chicago staff were friendly to me while at Columbia they seemed overworked -- except the guy who did the info session, he was great.</p>
<p>I could also apply to Barnard, and I love Berkeley and NYU. (I love NYU as a school, not just because it's in New York.) I'm going crazy!</p>
<p>Anyway, I can't decide whether I love Columbia or Chicago more -- so how do you know a school is the perfect place for you? Is it because you've wanted to go there forever, or do you just feel at home when you see it for the first time? Does anyone have advice for me? Thanks so much for reading.</p>
<p>It is tough to find the perfect school and know it immediately.</p>
<p>Last year around this time I was debating between Stanford SCEA and Columbia ED. I revisited Stanford for a 3rd time and while there I realized that even though I enjoyed it immensely, something didn't quite fit. I later figured out that what it was lacking was the kind of music department I wanted and had little political activism on campus.</p>
<p>I applied to Columbia ED and could not have been happier with my choice. I absolutely love it here. Classes, friends, professors, location, campus...everything. </p>
<p>It is tough to find your perfect school and know that it is the one. I know that you live close to Columbia. I would recommend going back to revisit it and get a feel for what it is like during a normal in-session period. You get a much better sense of the school that way.</p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck and if you do decided to apply to Columbia ED, I hope to see you on campus next fall!</p>
<p>I strongly suspect you will find that the financial aid situation is a big disappointment. If you are a Long Islander who can afford boarding school it is unlikely that you will qualify for any need based aid. Every school will use the fafsa. Some do look at other factors but that may not help. I suggest you have your parents complete a fafsa worksheet. You may find that the fafsa expects an EFC equivalent to about 1/3 of adjusted gross income. Merit aid is another problem at the Ivies and other top schools. There are exceptions, but most offer little or no merit aid.</p>
<p>Thanks to both of you for replying! As for the financial situation, my boarding school gives me a ton of need-based aid plus about $5,000 of merit money. We wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise. I know the Ivies, or at least Columbia, don't give merit scholarships, so I have a chance at much more aid at Chicago than I could even hope for at Columbia. However, my friend who got into Columbia SEAS ED wound up with fantastic FA. It's all very confusing.</p>
<p>I think I'm going to do an overnight stay at Columbia soon and hopefully that will help me make a choice.</p>