u/Few_Bookkeeper5819

If you are upper-middle-class (and you do not qualify for any financial aid, and you are dependent on merit aid to truly leverage the expense of college), then these are the schools that, in my experience, you should not spend your time applying to unless they are truly your dream institution.

- Colgate University- accepted with 0k in merit and grants (they only give financial grants, so take a look at it if you fall into the income range that you are guaranteed some reduced tuition)

- Lehigh University- I have heard that they are known for giving out very few scholarships, and in my experience, they gave none.

- Northeastern- accepted with 0k in merit. I am not sure if they are known for giving merit, but in my case, the cost of attendance would have been $101k per year.

I’m trying to decide between a few colleges (Case Western vs Union, also considered Rutgers), and I feel really stuck because I don’t fully know what I want to do career-wise yet.

Recently I started thinking about nursing/healthcare because it seems like a “safe” path—good job stability, solid pay, and you graduate into a career. That sounds really appealing, especially compared to other paths where you need grad school and more debt. My parents also care a lot about financial stability.

But I only started seriously considering nursing very recently, and I’m not 100% sure I actually want to do the day-to-day job. I’m worried I might be choosing it mostly because it feels secure, not because it actually fits me.

Now I’m stuck between schools:

Cost / options:

Case Western (~$61K/year) → very expensive; makes the most sense if I fully commit to nursing/healthcare pipeline

Union College (~$44K/year) → still expensive but slightly less; more flexible liberal arts environment where I can explore before committing

The biggest thing is at Union college I would have more room to consider my options before committing fully to nursing (but this also happens to be a con-that I wouldn’t graduate with financial stability and flexible job path right of the bat)