Admission Decision Help: UIUC College of Engineering, Georgia Tech, or Saint Louis University?

how much in debt are we talking about?
What’s your parents’ budget out of pocket (from savings+ income)?
The amount a college graduate can reasonably expect to be able to pay back in 10 years (so, in his/her early 30’s) is 27K, which is why that’s the amount you can borrow from federal loans (with interest, it adds up to 31K already).
You can’t borrow more on your own - your parents would have to apply for Parent PLUS loans. (You could offer to pay them back but that’d mean you’d be severely limited until your 40’s).