Villanova or Saint Mary’s College

hi! i’m having a very hard time choosing a college to attend, so i would love some advice! i’ll do the best i can to provide all information, but if anything additional is needed, let me know!

let’s start with all of my college options. the list below reflects my offers.

Dayton ✅

Miami Ohio ✅

Creighton ✅

Loyola ✅

Holy Cross College ✅

Marquette ✅

Notre Dame ⏳➡️❌

Villanova ✅

College of the Holy Cross ⏳

Boston College ❌

Saint Mary’s ✅

i am from a middle class family. i am not first gen, and received pretty much nothing from fafsa. i am planning on majoring in something business related (econ, management, finance), and minoring in some type of humanity (psych, social work). i plan to attend law school, hopefully at a T20, and pursue family law. big law isn’t my goal (as of now of course). instead, i plan to open my own firm, and represent community driven and personal familial disputes.

i worked very hard in high school to maintain a 3.98 UW gpa, 12 or so aps, all honors. i have a 32 act, state scholar, among other awards. its always been my goal to attend a prestigious, Catholic university. that dream seemed attainable until my financial aid package came back from Nova.

Villanova Tuition: ~96,000 - ~40,000 (nova grant) = ~57,000 a year

Saint Mary’s Tuition: ~70,000 - ~40,000 (presidential, among other grants) = ~ 35,000

now these totals don’t include loans, but one is much pricier than the other.

i’m working to try and appeal my financial aid for Nova, but for the sake of this post, we are assuming this doesn’t work in my favor.

i really just need some advice to make the best decision possible. is a degree from Nova better than SMC, regardless of cost? i’m not sure. but, does a masters in management from notre dame through saint mary’s 4+1 program make smc worth it, or does it not matter for my JD?

open to suggestions from the list above as well, a few presidential scholarships, grants, and honors programs awarded for those schools too. was also accepted to Miami Ohio’s business school and honors college and it’s about the same cost as smc, so that’s also on the table.

any advice or insight is much much appreciated.