GW [$18.3k] vs. Richmond [$27.9k] vs. NC State [$3.5k+ or $18k] vs. Emory (Oxford) [$23.4k] for Psychology [costs in addition to $5.5k direct loan]

I totally agree with this - my daughter is very work/financially driven - I can imagine this could drive her in other directions depending on her exposure to other fields in the same area of study or otherwise. That is what is making the decision difficult - everything has been variable and all over the place and I should have suspected that would happen with a 17-year-old with little experience in life. It really is a lot of pressure to figure out her whole future they are all at similar costs except for Richmond and the only thing that is not variable is the prestige of the university. Her thoughts on urban vs. non-urban, small vs. large, psychology vs. otherwise - none of those preferences have been written in stone as I have seen throughout this year. She started the college process thinking she wanted to go to a large public University and now is leaning toward all the smaller ones. She got accepted to several large public universities because that was what she wanted when we first started this whole process (Wisconsin, Marlyand, Florida State, Clemson, NC State - waitlisted UNC-CH) but is no longer interested (NC state is only slightly appealing only because it is local - and it is not that appealing to her). The only thing that is not variable but may not matter is prestige and how she feels after visiting, the “fit,” will also matter, but I can imagine can also be variable through her experience there after she commits. Can’t wait to get through the visits!

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