@Much2learn, do you believe those “religious conservative parents” you refer to in post #37 truly believe they are “hating an entire group”, or that they have even thought about any level of evidence for one religion compared to another? These people when press, don’t believe they hate others at all, they just want nothing to do with them. They have no need for any discussion about any other religion because THEIRS is right, period, and all others are just wrong.
I get the financial reasons that many families face. One of D’s classmates will be attending Flagship State because of a wealthy great uncle’s trust fund, that will provide up to $40K per year to his nephews/nieces/great nephews/great nieces to attend that school, but he loved that particular school so much, after this generation is done with their education, the remainder of this trust fund will go not to his family, but to the school. This young man’s parents told him not to even bother applying elsewhere, and many of us would completely agree with his parents (whether or not we’d agree with his late great-uncle is another story).