My son17 applied to 3 Private and 2 State U. The State U’s were places that offered his major and would be considerably cheaper to attend than the Privates hie applied. He ended up choosing a DIII Private school for quality of education, school vibe, size, location and he can continue to play his sport and be competitive at the next level.
He was fully prepared to seriously entertain the State U offers if he did not get into his #1 choice.
I told my daughter to apply to at least one state school and anywhere else she wanted. She felt our state flagship was too big and had no interest in applying there. She did apply to in state and out of state schools as well as private. The one she felt was the best fit, wasn’t the cheapest but amongst the cheapest ended up being a private school. She is very happy there which is what we wanted. As an added bonus the school offers her not so common club sport (figure skating).
For our first, we discouraged applying to OOS publics with the rationale that if we are paying full OOS COA, we might as well pay for a private experience instead. OOS publics with significant merit would have been an exception, if the school were an especially good fit and/or if the merit were financially necessary. (The in-state public remained on the list as a safety.)
My S applied to only one public, our in-state flagship, as a safety. For us, academics trumps everything else, so the only OOS publics that make some sense are the likes of UC Berkeley or UMich, but they cost almost the same as top privates. Fortunately, we never have to make that decision after his success in early round. I still feel bad that he had to turn down the full-ride merit offer from his in-state flagship. The final decision was always going to be his, and it was.
This thread makes me think of asking someone what kind of car they would buy. Some, only want a BMW or Mercedes, no matter how much cash they have or financing they need, it is worth it to them to go into debt for it. Others don’t get that thinking, a Ford Focus will get you from point A to Point B and allow you to pay cash for it, and still have money in your pocket or buy another car. Still others choose to take mass transit for two years and save up money to buy a BMW. You might even be enticed with zero down, special financing to try to make that car that is over your budget work. Then there are those of us who buy lots of raffle tickets to win that Lamborghini, Porche, or Ferrari 
I just want to make a point that there is a lot of variation in OOS flagship costs. There can be upwards of a $25k/year difference between some schools.
We looked at both privates and publics and in the end all the places left on the list were private. Some publics stayed on until the last cut, however. In the end kiddo favored smaller colleges nearer to a busy town or city, and our instate publics tended to be either too big or too rural. We did end up with a couple midsize colleges and one rural-ish college on the list, but they stayed due to strength of programs.
Weather grouped as private or public, the label should make no difference. So many assumptions have been assigned to those labels… pricing included.
Please do your homework. Define what is important to you and collect your data.
I am constantly surprised by the assumptions assigned to our collective group of opportunities. Brand name is defined by what you and your friends have heard about (parents included). Market studies have been run which repeatedly indicate many parents are looking for bragging rights at the brand name college or university, but that they will never admit to it! Almost by definition, any college or university one has never heard of cannot be taken seriously.
Education should teach us not to fill gaps with assumptions.
How about checking out the data including the faculty. Many of these institutions will really surprise you!
What do you know about the “when” and “how” of your choices of major?
Do you know the actual graduate school and job placement by major. Many majors need GS to strengthen employment opportunities (e.g. biology) while others have to pass up serious money (e.g., CS) to go directly from the BS or BA degree to graduate school.
Most bright, hardworking, productive students also need a personal balance in college… What do YOU need for balance. At the end of a very busy day, are you just tired or are you defeated. Your parents are not there… What do you need?
Research takes time and personal commitment. When you look behind the “rankings” you may find they are a marketing “cop-out” when compared to the product of your hard earned, personal research. Happiness and success will be defined by your affordable goals. Cost counts but it does not always equate to the best selection for you.
Here is the icing on the cake. If you do the research you, increase the likelihood of a more personally rewarding educational experience. You get out what you put in. Your educational craft becomes a custom fit because you talked yourself into it.
@elodyCOH There are dozens of public and private offering full merit rides to top students. At least here in Texas, no top student has to go to community college. They don’t get to go to top colleges on merit but mediocre ones have plenty of free rides, specially for students with high SAT and PSAT scores.
There are plenty of people who only consider private schools and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s not saying heck with what the kids think, it’s what they know and how they do education. Just like in grade school through high school - some families only choose private. So for the OP, the answer would be of course some do. Simple as that.
@Riversider My son got full tuition scholarships at several OOS public schools, but with room, board, books, etc. it is still a lot. There are lots of other kids in my son’s GATE program who also have high stats whose parents just can’t swing the expense for the kids to do the 4 year schools. The nearest public university is a 90 minute drive each way, minimum. Most do CC and then transfer if they can. All states differ.
My kid with a 34 ACT, and good grades did not fair well at the private schools. At our instate publics he got nothing. Each of the 50 states has its own rules and opportunities. Some good, some downright awful.
One of the reasons I started this thread was that I have changed my thinking about college the last couple of years.
Originally, as a resident of CA, I just assumed my kids would attend one of our very good in-state universities (UC or CSU) as did my wife and myself but as we talked with many families, some of their kids have no desire to go to a large public university and have opted to attend top 50-100 private universities instead. Of course many of these families can afford private colleges without FA, merit or scholarships but it got me thinking “what is the best fit” for my kids and would they be better off attending a private college with smaller classes taught by professors (not TA’s), no fear of budget cuts, strong academics and reputation and great opportunities for internships and jobs upon graduation.
Just looking for some feedback on what your family did or is doing?
I think CC is a self-selected group…if you are going to just apply to your state colleges/and Us, you wouldn’t come here to figure out strategy. You just apply.
Both of my DD’s went to public schools…we were going to be full pay so I helped them find the best value that met what they wanted.
My second applied to only private schools. It was clear that she’d thrive more in a smaller school environment. She applied to one midsized private university and the rest LACs. Some of the LACs gave merit, with one coming in around what our instate flagship would have cost. She picked one of the smaller schools.
Other kid did have 2 good state flagships on her list, got into one where we had reciprocity, but picked an LAC where she got merit.
I’ll add that I went to my (very fine) state flagship, but encouraged my kids to seek out smaller schools.
@blueskies2day “Just like in grade school through high school - some families only choose private.”
I’m curious to hear more on this topic. Is it assumed that the private education is “better” than a public school education. What are public school kids missing?
We did K-12 private as well. Guaranteed small class sizes, kids well known and supported by many adults through their years there, strong arts/foreign languages, kids able to participate in many ECs without cuts, great college counseling. Kid 1 probably could have done fine in the public gifted & talented program. D2 needed more structure & attention.
^^^ I don’t think anyone can/should say that private education is “better” than a public school education. IMO it comes down to fit for each student.
And the available schools.
For us the strategy was private reaches, public matches and safety, based mostly on ratings in S’s chosen major (math).
My husband works at a private so we applied private heavy simply because of the potential benefit (i.e. it’s competitive) but S19 also applied to in-state publics and did very well merit-wise because of his test scores. I actually work at an in-state public but our employee benefit is tuition only, which in Massachusetts is a teeny-tiny portion of the tuition and fee equation. The tuition is something like 10% of the cost!