Decisions

In about a month, I will have to decide on what college I will be attending in the fall. It's scary to realize how fast my senior year flew by. I remember around this time last year, graduation and just being a second semester senior seemed SO far away...but now that the time has arrived, it went by really fast. As stoked as I am about graduating in about two months, deep down inside I wish high school were longer because I'm going to miss everyone, and it's going to be hard to live without the people that I see almost everyday.
Today on the news, there was a report about high school seniors and how now is the time where seniors are in the process of waiting/deciding on colleges. But for parents, their main concern is the cost to send their kids to college. For seniors, their main concern is what colleges they get accepted to, and what college they want to go to. The story went on to discuss why college tuition is so expensive, and where the money actually goes. I didn't listen to the rest of the story, but I heard enough of it to give me inspiration to write my blog about making college decisions.
Since a parent and their child have different concerns when deciding on what college to attend, there will definitely be conflicting opinions on what college the student will actually attend. Should the student's decision be based on the amount of financial aid received and how much the tuition is? Or should it be based on where they really want to go/their best fit college? Which is ultimately more important? Right now I am somewhat having a hard time deciding on which is more important. I have my heart set on going to the University of Washington, but that is also the school that gave me the least amount of financial aid. The school that I don't want to go to at all gave me the most financial aid. The cheapest school is the school my parents want me to attend, but I don't think I will be happy there.
I have a month to decide...
:/