So... one of D's friends from the online Cogito chat forum run by CTY (who happens to be from our city as well, but that is how they initially met) is a PG girl who picked Scripps. She just finished her freshman year. D had coffee with her when we went to Mudd's accepted student days. The gist of their conversation was that while her friend likes Scripps and got good merit money, she feels underchallenged there. She is triple majoring, and making the best of it. But she told D she wishes she had gone to a harder college.

My D was also accepted at Macalester. She got some decent merit money there, and it is a fine school. Again -- your D is going to be a superstar in the pool there, though. That is the problem with the merit money schools...

My D1 is not PG, and she took the merit money from her LAC and had a great experience. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa, has a good job she loves, and made a lot of friends. But she was not looking for top intellectual company. So while we had some schools like that on D2's list (in case she... changed her mind? More like in case I got hit by a truck and could not pay her tuition -- as I have said to her, if the truck kills me you are all set becaues of life insurance -- but if I just can't work, then you need a financial backup school!). But her heart was never in attending one of those schools...