@socaldad2002 @donnaleighg I went to a top 20 school that had 8K undergrad. There is definitely an aspect of my education that I value that doesn’t immediately translate into dollars. It made me a more well rounded individual. I can appreciate that and feel quite lucky that was able to attend the school when half of sticker price would have totally been out of reach for my family. I was a need based student, but still had loans. Heck I found my better half there as well.
Ironically I had a full-ride at my state flagship and choose the other school. If my D19 was in my same situation I would tell her to do what I did. She won’t be because I make too much money. Loans she would most likely have to take out be around $80-100K. We have money saved but that would most likely be the shortfall. I would have hard time letting her do that. If in comparison her loan number at a state school or LAC could be $5-10K.
See my wife and I came out of UG with around $60-65K in loans. That was a long time ago so that was a big number. We spent most of our 20s living on the cheap paying that off. I want something better for my D19 so she doesn’t have to go through that. I will say in the end I don’t regret too much about my decision, but like I just said I want something better for my kids. I think we all do.