Some very good advice on this thread.
For me, it came down to UW in my final two, but that was partly because I had some loose family connections to Seattle. I actually accepted a place there, but then backed out because I decided I wanted to stay closer to home. I think it is a great school in a really great city, though. Ultimately, how far you want to get from home is another consideration you must also make.
One other big question is whether you want a big public university (which it sounds like) or a smaller liberal arts school (Grinnell, Oberlin), which haven't been mentioned much in this thread. Early on, my dad was really pimping Rice to me, which gives a really great education for a relatively low tuition (or used to). But I didn't want to live in Houston (or anywhere in Texas). By the way, if you go Ivy, the quality of life at Harvard really, really, really sucks. Yale isn't that much better. You will have a much better college experience at Brown or Dartmouth or Princeton, IMO.
Ultimately, my choice came down in part to wanting to be close, but not TOO close, to home. And money. And my choice of major. Good luck.
