Thanks for all the input. At this point, we are leaning towards state flagship Honors. We took a closer look at the finances and realized that even with need based grants covering full tuition at each LAC, the other expenses (travel, housing, etc.) are quite a bit higher at the LACs compared to the state flagship (which has cheaper housing and optional meal plan). Inexplicably, one of the colleges budgeted just $400 for travel expenses- for a school that is located 1200 miles away from our home! No way to get 3 round trips (or even 2 roundtrips) to the school for that little! I actually reached out to the school to ask if this was a mistake, but was told that it was correct. Essentially, it’s a small travel subsidy to subsidize a portion of the travel expenses. So even though all the LAC’s claim to meet full need, all these little things are going to add up to a significant chunk of change compared to the state flagship (again, with Davidson’s no-loans package the lone exception) It’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but it is a factor.
Another small factor is that I selfishly would love to see him perform in musicals and other productions, which is only likely to happen at the state flagship 3 hours away. Again, the final choice is his choice though…less than 3 days left!
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