Your question is a false premise and lacks a big element: do your parent have 30-35K?
If they’re willing to invest them into your education, then the point is moot. Go to the best school for you that you can also afford.
The second problem with your question assumes you won’t be eligible for any scholarship at UMN (which is cheaper than UIUC). In addition, there are many reputable colleges where you’d likely earn scholarships, depending on your stats.
Third, it’s good you specified that for you UMN or UIUC are the “brand names”, because on these boards, “brand name” typically means Ivy+. In any case, what you do is that you run the Net Price Calculator.
I hope you’re not aiming at a career in education in Kansas, because the budget cuts led to a budget crisis led to massive layoffs of experienced teachers who are looking for jobs… Kansas is not going to hire young teachers for a while. Illinois’ kind of in a bad situation too, just not as dire (but Kansas won the prize by far so it’s hard for any state to compete :p.) Minnesota’s finances are fine, so it may be a good investment to study there to find a job there. They have many charter schools, immersion schools, etc, so there’s a good range in type of schools where you can practice. I don’t know the situation in Iowa but it may be worth looking into.
Other schools to consider (depending on your stats): Drake, Illinois Wesleyan, Macalester, St Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, Earlham.
It sounds like you want to study nursing? If you feel strong/sure of that, also make sure you apply to all the financial ‘safeties’ and apply to programs with the guarantee (some call it direct entry), or nursing scholars program where you know that if you do well in the first two years, you can complete the clinical aspects and degree. If you ACT is higher, you may have more scholarship options too. Do the ACT preparation and have a light enough first semester HS senior year to focus on bringing up that test score.
If you are smart and have drive, there are good options in nursing. DD will graduate May 2016 with BSN.
You do not want to borrow $$ if you don’t have to.
I know an excellent nurse practitioner that came from a family that couldn’t help her with any college costs. She got AD/RN at CC (while also working part-time jobs and continuing to live at home), then got BSN and nurse practitioner by working her way through.
Be smart enough to choose the right opportunities at the right price. Make sure to review all your in-state options (can google your state board of nursing to find the lists).
Simple answer…inexpensive school with a proven track record of having students accomplish desired objectives (employment in field or grad school.)
This question only makes sense when money is no object. This is possible for many students and thus a reasonable question in this regard. As soon as you say that finances are a concern then realistically you need to be looking at your college list in a different light. Right of the bat, we set a budget of $xk for our S and looked for schools meeting his criteria, our budget, and chances of getting in. We had many more safeties than reaches and with some research, you will find there are excellent schools that fall in the ‘safety’ category for many people.
I understand about not knowing all your variables at this moment and that is why we had a long list - due to geography, major, size - because he could want different things by the end of senior year. But the variables that were not likely to change were budget and chances of getting in so these were decided early in the process.