<p>Strick, you don’t always get what you pay for. Nor is a “deal” always a deal. Choosing a place where your sudent is going to pretty much grow up, his second home is really a holistic, fuzzy process that cannot always be laid out in terms of cost. Most of the time the way it works, is that it is worth it, if that is your preconceived notion. Someone who is “Berkeley all the way”, is not likely to believe that U of Chicago is worth it. Someone who has always harbored Harvard dreams is going to feel it is every bit worth it over a free ride anywhere. And they could both be wrong—or right. It is the fit with the student involved that makes it right. I am sure the family whose daughter killed herself at MIT does not feel that was the best choice for her, an extreme, tragic case, but it does happen at some of the top schools as well as free choices. </p>
<p>Fortunately, most kids are pretty resilient and end up enjoying whereever they end up going. If they do not like it, and you have a support system in place, it could be easily rectified. The horror stories are few, and exist in any situation not just college placement.</p>