Is it better to go to college cheap and miserable, or expensive and in debt?

Architecture is not the highest paying field, and is subject to cyclical downturns, so heavy debt can be pretty miserable.

If you are in a BArch program for close to free, that is great. If you are in a BA/BS program, be aware that you will need to do an MArch later, which can be expensive, so heavy undergraduate debt may limit your options for that.