MFA Low-Res Options

I hate the idea of online schooling, absolutely despise it.  But it seems like such a necessity in this day and age (for me and for my SO) because I honestly don't know where I'm going to be in a year or two years.  So much is up in the air and it feels like the world just keep spinning around and around and sometimes I'm utterly lost.  I make tiny breakthroughs such as the decision to go back to school.  This feels right and necessary.  But I want 'in class' and 'in your face' experience and since the closest college that offers an MFA is in Moscow, I would have to move to get that.  At least I would for a full residency.  But low residency options are also out there.  In online schooling, you can do everything from home but there are no assistanceships,  fellowships, or scholarships to help you; in residency schooling you have to live on or near campus and attend regular classes but there are a great deal of financial aid options.  In low residency there is both.  I can go to the school (and the school often provides the residency under a blanket fee) for about 10 days once or twice a year depending on the program and meet all those associated with the program as well as receive the intensive 'in your face' atmosphere that I crave.  The rest of the semester is spent at home (wherever home may be) working online.  Also, low residence programs often offer fellowships, scholarships, assistanceships and more.  I think low-res is the best of both worlds in my situation and I have a great deal many phone calls to make tomorrow in trimming down my choices.  For online there were only three choices: SNHU, UTEP, and U of D.  Of those, I felt that UTEP was the best option.  If I do decide on online in the end, it will be UTEP that I cast my lots with.  For residency I was interested in WSU (Wichita) and U of I (Idaho).  Both require a move and one would be hard to accomplish (financially and emotionally speaking).  If I were a single person with no cats, this would be a somewhat easier task because I could decide on pretty much any school, any where and just go.  But I'm almost thirty and I like having an SO and I like having my kitties and I don't feel I should have to be separated from or lose that entirely just to continue my education.  So, here follows a long list of low-res programs that I am going to trim down to three between today and tomorrow and, by the end of the week, hopefully, I will be nice and applied.

• Western Connecticut State University 
• Pine Manor College
• EKU Bluegrass Writer's Studio  
• Leslie University
• Seton Hill University
• Goddard College
• Warren Wilson College
• Cedar Crest College
• Chatham University
• Naropa University
• University of New Orleans
• Sierra Nevada College
• Spaulding University
• Bard College
• Queens University of Charlotte
• Arcadia University
• Bennington University
• Carlow University
• Seattle Pacific University

Some of these are total pipe dreams and simply won't work such as the Bard College which requires eight weeks of residency each summer.  I would love this, but SO and kitties would not.  Others are much more feasible because their residencies are close enough that I could drive rather than have to purchase air fare.  Others have their residencies in other countries and this is extremely appealing to me.  There are a few on the list that are rather selective and others that are as close to an open door policy as one can be in a graduate program.  The main factors in my consideration include: length and frequency of residencies, financial assistance from the university/college, length and flexibility of grad program, application fees, application requirements, and selectivity in grad student acceptance.