Another anecdotal story.
My son, a senior in college, was accepted to in-state (CA) and out-of-state publics and privates. His finalists were essentially a UC and a private in CA. He chose the private for a few reasons which in retrospect, ended up being a saving grace for him.
- He received merit aid at the private he attends. Not enough to bring it down to exactly a price equal to the UC school, but close enough that finances were a distant background decision point.
- He started in mechanical engineering. At the UC school, it is an impacted major along with many/majority of majors. He was given "the grid" that defined his class path that would get him through in four year with literally one or two slots his senior year to pick classes of his choosing. If he chose to switch majors along the way, he would have a much more limited set of options then when he was applying as an incoming freshman and he would certainly have had to take quite a few community college classes to keep up and graduate in four years. Graduating in four year was very important to him and that is why he eliminated the University of Wisconsin were he was flat out told by the engineering department that most engineers take 5 years to graduate due to the difficulty of getting the required classes. He ended up transferring to Econ after two years at his current school and will graduate in four years with two summer classes there and no community college classes. He was able to pull this off because he was able to get into the extra classes he needed to catch up with little difficulty during the fall/spring sessions.
- We picked up a friend of his older sister at UCLA when he was a senior in high school. We asked the friend about the long line streaming out of a door on a building, along the length of the building, and around the corner to who knows how far. She said "Oh, that's just the line for dinner at the cafeteria". It impacted my son, he realized that with large numbers come logistics and supplies issues that have to be navigated.
- He attended a private high school. He felt more at home at a mid-sized private then at a large public. His younger brother is graduating from the same HS and is looking forward to attending an OOS public flagship because he doesn't want to feel like he is in another smallish environment (like myself). Different strokes for different folks.
- An additional benefit of his choice is that he has built great relationships with many of his tenured professors. He has built great relationship with a professor that he never took a class from; this prof helped him land a highly sought after summer internship after his JR year which was an important factor in getting the job he has accepted upon graduation this June. His schools alumni network is also fantastic, regional for sure, yet fantastic. They take care of their own.
This is a view into a single decision on why a private school was a better choice then a flagship public. Again, my youngest has chosen the OOS flagship public route and we are looking forward to the next four years of his experiences.