My daughter will attend Amherst College, in large part due to its extremely generous financial aid policy. For her freshman year, at least, her financial aid portal bill is =$1,000.
She applied to one state public school, one state private school, and then highly selective out-of-state private schools who pledged to meet demonstrated need without loans. At these schools she would need to provide student contributions like summer work or work study (or take out loans to offset her contribution.)
She is attending the cheapest school that admitted her that offers her major.