This is an interesting decision. We are in DFW, and I agree that people here tend to overrate SMU - it’s a good school, especially for business, but it’s not the pinnacle of American higher education or anything like that. In my experience, affluent locals really talk it up, as it’s traditionally been fairly easy for full-pay students with local connections to get in and they want to make it seem as though admission is very prestigious.
It sounds like my D22 was in a similar situation to your daughter in the last admissions cycle - high stats, very modest resources that allowed for lots of need-based aid from top schools, interest in a not-so-lucrative major, and ready to leave home. If she’d had the choice of (1) Columbia for 9k, (2) NW for 6k, or (3) SMU for free, she would have immediately eliminated SMU, even if she had to borrow the total amount at the other places and pay it back without help. And while I’m no great fan of student debt (having spent most of my kids’ childhood years paying off my own $160k law school debt), in this case, I think the experience at Columbia or NW, and the industry connections one might make there, could be worth the cost. I do understand the comments from others that money is money, and if you are struggling financially, “free” is a lot different than 6k or 9k. For 20k or 50k or 80k per year, I would agree. But you only live once, and here I would vote NW for 6k.