@bldtchr “how does your D like Lehigh? Did she receive any merit there?”
She is having a good freshman year at Lehigh.
D did not receive any merit. Lehigh is expensive and that was a concern for us too. I think each family has to decide for their situation. I also thought that for an engineering student, the value added from Lehigh was very good based on their placement. For us, it would have been less expensive for her to attend Illinois which has excellent engineering and would have been in-state tuition.
She was admitted to Illinois for Chem E. The issue with Illinois was that if an Illinois student decides to change to a different engineering or possibly even business major, they have to apply. Then they may be rejected, and have to accept being stuck in a major they do not like, or transfer to another school. We were not comfortable with that.
It is a very individual decision.