Colgate vs. Wesleyan vs. Trinity College (with merit aid)

I’m less concerned with prestige than I am with vibe. Colgate and Trinity have pretty different immediate neighborhoods. If DS is as flexible as you describe him to be, then sure, saving $100K over four years makes a lot of sense. But, let’s be clear: There’s a reason Trinity is offering you a 25% discount; they have rightly concluded that is the only way an upper-middle class family would be persuaded to send a kid with his stats to that neighborhood. And, as a follow-up question, would you really be putting that savings away in a lock-box somewhere or would it just merge into other family spending anyway?