Todd Seki is a warm guy. Literally.

By the time his acceptance letters started rolling in, his choice had been narrowed to two for weather-related reasons: University of Southern California and Arizona State.

"Location was huge," Todd admits. "(Arizona State) is not super cold, and it's not in the middle of nowhere."

He and his mom pored over a grid to show how much each financial aid package would be, and Todd talked to friends who knew the campuses. He weighed several things, including qualities of the school and of life.

And cost.

"Arizona State gave me a better package and seemed better for me," he said. "I didn't want to pay how many thousands more for USC. ... After four years, the other schools are twice the price of ASU."

Lori Kim's teachers and counselors had been trying to knock this little bird out of the nest by considering one of the Mainland schools that accepted her — the University of Oregon and University of Portland.

Her 4.0 GPA last semester made her a great candidate, and they believed she'd benefit by spreading her wings a bit.

However, there are other motives, too, for this self-aware Buddhist.

"I'm not comfortable just yet, to be an adult, quote unquote," Lori said, adding she's not ready for the crush of UH, either. "I've been in a small school all my educational life. If I threw myself into UH, where the classes are large with hundreds of students in one lecture, I don't think I'd make the transition well. I want to stay with a small school. Also, I liked the programs."

You think Kimberly Kisner, the daughter of a brigadier general (and who met Laura Bush during a presidential visit in November), has had stressful weeks before?

This week has to be the most nerve-wracking of all.

There are AP exams, school finals — and the frustration of waiting to hear from her first-choice school, UT-Austin, about whether she made it into its prestigious honors program.

She's going to need a good dose of warm milk on Monday, because Tuesday she learns if she jumped from wait list to the accepted list. It's also the date she's supposed to commit to one of the schools. Talk about going down to the wire.

And if her parents are more comfortable with her choice of a Texas school because that's where they have family, well, that's a plus.

"I'm so grateful not to have to leave before the end of senior year, I'd do anything they ask," Kimberly said. Radford is the third high school Kimberly has attended, and though her father was called to Florida mid-school-year, her mother chose to stay behind with her two daughters so Kimberly could finish her senior year on O'ahu.

The decision-making process "has been a lot harder than I thought," Kimberly said, adding that this is one decision she wants to stick for the next four years.

"I don't want to transfer."