So glad to see this thread pop back up, and see that we're not alone in stressing over all these plans. lol. This is our first child off to college, so we're breaking new ground here.
DD went through a long drawn out process to review her school options. Applied to several, both public and private, and accepted to all of them.
When she couldn't settle on a decision, she created an excel sheet to break down all the pros and cons, finally settled on one in particular and was getting excited about putting down a deposit and making her room request.
Then, just this week, she was offered a decent scholarship to one of the others (Presidential, $18,000) and is up for a larger award following an interview process in the spring. It's exciting; but, unexpected (grades are great, but test scores are just 'ok'), and now we're conflicted.
It's hard to pass up ANY money when you're talking about college, but we want to make sure she also chooses the program that will give her the best opportunities after graduation.....
Ugh.
She is retaking both the SAT and ACT in the next month. After getting this offer, she's hoping maybe she can improve her scores just a bit and she'll get a small offer at the favored school also... but they don't announce until spring, so it'll be a long wait to find out.
And of course, she's now frustrated because the dorms are first come, first served at her Choice School. So, waiting to make a decision means she'll probably be stuck with the older/not-so-nice dorms freshman year.
Yeah, that's what she's worried about now.
She's decided to e-mail both departments to get additional information on their respective programs, hoping that will help her decide between the now-cheaper option and the favored option. We'll see if that gets us anywhere closer to a final decision.
Good Luck to everyone with the planning! This is exhausting!