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Update: 4/28/09:

For Seana Peterson, deciding where to go to college was a matter of recognizing and vocalizing feelings that were already there, but not quite conscious. The Foxboro, Mass. senior had narrowed her choice to Northwestern and the honors program at the University of Virginia.

“I’m decided on Northwestern,” Peterson said, although she said she hasn’t paid her deposit yet. “I realized that I’d been talking to a lot more Northwestern students. I was always checking NU stuff. It seemed really natural.”

Peterson said she became aware that she was spending significant time on the Northwestern Web site and was barely even visiting the UVA site.

Before she can commit her deposit to Northwestern, though, Peterson is waiting to hear the results of her financial aid appeal. “Since I didn’t get any money, my parents are working on trying to get us evaluated” again, Peterson said.

Her interest in Northwestern built in the month or so since she was accepted, Peterson said. “When I went to NU for the first time, I had a really amazing tour guide.”

Peterson stayed overnight with a family friend who lives in a sorority and decided she “likes sorority life at Northwestern a lot better than what I saw at UVA.”

Another pull was the music program. After meeting with lecturer Chris Madsen and talking to music students, Peterson “felt really comfortable. It was everything I was looking for.” Peterson plans to stay in Weinberg for now, but take classes and potentially double major in the Bienen School of Music.

By any measure, Peterson was in a good position to choose a college when the admissions dust settled: she got into 12 out of 12 schools and did not require (or receive) significant financial aid from any of her schools. But with so many choices, and so little to distinguish them in terms of cost or viability, Peterson has had to make a few sacrifices to simplify her decision.

She decided not to visit Georgetown, a school that deferred her early application. Peterson is confident in her decision and didn’t want to unnecessarily complicate it by visiting another school. “I’m so set on NU,” she said.