<p>There are tons of wonderful colleges within a 4-5 hour drive of most places in the northeast. Included in those are some that would likely welcome a student who is competitive for the Ivies (UPenn or the like) and offer merit aid as well.</p>
<p>I will echo others. It’s not particularly helpful to have a “dream school” or extreme passion about only one school. It makes for a very difficult time if the student does not get accepted at that school. Better to have a number of “dream schools” to which the student would be very happy to matriculate. </p>
<p>As an FYI…our DD applied to three schools (her top three choices) that many people would have called safety schools for her. She LOVED all three and would gladly have attended any of the three. She was accepted to all three which made the month of April a bit tiring…but it was better than NOT loving any school or not getting accepted to ONE dream spot and having to just “settle” on a second choice.</p>
<p>I would suggest writing down the characteristics of UPenn and look for other schools that have similar traits. </p>
<p>Just FYI…our kids didn’t qualify for need based aid…but they both got merit aid where for undergrad (and DS for grad) which did lighten our financial load. The costs at their schools hovered around $50K per year.</p>