I would argue depending on the type of journalism desires, prestige is mainly worthless. I’m a Syracuse journalism grad. But these schools have heft/size. Hence the amount of successes they have are large but not necessarily when scaled to program size.
I don’t believe Columbia has an undergrad j school.
Op did mention creative writing and publishing. I might ask for career outcomes at each - does one have a better track record than others?
I don’t know where publishers are located but if they’re mainly in NYC, then I’d assume Columbia had an advantage. If in Dallas, SMU. In Chicago, Northwestern.
There are so many more fields in journalism today - but it’s often a contracted world vs employment world for many of these opportunities. A lot will depend on what journalistic expertise they want whether print, magazine, broadcast, etc and then the niches within.
I think OP really has three terrific options. But it’s never an option to strangle yourself financially.
Best of luck.