<p>puppylove14, as ludicrous as it sounds to turn down a full ride, there is much more to choosing a school than money or other peoples perception of a school. The free ride was at a state school with a supposedly good engineering dept. The school was in the middle of nowhere and the academics didn’t seem anywhere near as good as Villanova (or any of the other schools my son was accepted onto). I don’t think he would have been challenged or stimulated there. In fact he would have been bored out of his mind!
The financial aid packages offered from the other private schools he applied to were all very similiar. If I really couldn’t afford a better school I would have sent him to the freebie.
It was really just a safety school for him.</p>