Crazy cast of Hubski here! I'm now finishing up my freshman year of college, so I have some thoughts. I always knew I wanted a small school, so that's out. But I recommend smaller schools if only because you get to know your profs more, and profs tend to be some of my favorite people. But of course debt free is nice. As far as going away vs staying close, I ran the fuck away last year. Texas to New York. It's been okay, but I underestimated the homesickness and overestimated my tolerance of cold. The snow was cool, for the first two weeks. The next two months were… unpleasant. So I don't know, just maybe don't trust your intuitions about homesickness and weather? Certainly don't trust mine! Anyway, that was real disjointed and I have to get back to this reading (lol I've been procrastinating all day), but I hope something in there helped. Good luck! (Also, see my advice in the thread KB linked. I don't have time to give a direct link now, sorry.)
Gotcha, will check it out thanks so much :) Great to know how its been, same deal with the snow. I'm from Florida so the visit up there was the first snow I'd seen in a years. It was definitely cool, but I can totally see the excitement wearing thin. Good luck on the reading!