follow  the money

I would bug the 2 schools and tell them of your situation: just email everybody you can think of at both schools and ask if you can get additional financial assistance.  You might also get lucky and get additional financial aid after you accept either offer.  

My inclination is that since you've lived in California your whole life, NY might be an exciting change of pace as the place you live in has as much to do with your education as the school itself.  More importantly (and yes, this has been talked to death in Archinect) it really DOES matter what the schools are teaching and what faculty is there.  Where are the students practicing after going to Pratt or Pomona?  

I guess it really narrows down to what's important to you and although it seems obvious, I would write down your personal, professional and academic ambitions and the school that fulfills them is the school for you.

if you go to nyc you'll get beaten and robed. after you freeze to death in a slumlord flophouse, rats, roaches and bedbugs will fight over your dead body. you'll get run over by a cabbie from Pakistan. you'll have more food poisonings than actual meals. you'll fall asleep on 6 train and wake up in Bronx naked and without a kidney. you'll fail miserably like 99% of people who more there.

but hey, at least it's better than California.

Pratt.

I'd choose Pratt.  

gregarious, thanks for the advice. I'm going to call Pratt on Monday.

I would also like to clarify that I probably want end up practicing in LA after school. So how important is it to go to school in the city  you want to work in? I could always do my M.arch II at UCLA. 

I have allot of family on the east coast, and I have spent many of my summer and winter vacations in NY. I've dreamed of going to school there since I was a little kid. But, I've never actually visited Pratt's campus or studios. I'm planning a trip to go visit this month. Hopefully it will inspire me to make a decision.