<p>For one, if anyone is paying full sticker price (which is still not $300,000) then their family is very wealthy. Last I checked half of students whose families made over $250,000 a year receive financial aid. More to the point, the average award is near 40k a year, which means the average student would pay a total of ~80k over 4 years (not an actual statistic, just a quick estimate).</p>
<p>Then, if you want to only look at if from that perspective, from the data I’ve seen the expected bump in median salary is fairly substantial. You’d be expected to make it up in a few years. </p>
<p>In other words, I think the current state of financial aid has made the answer - if you ignore every other factor but cost versus expected income - usually a place like Princeton over the alternatives.</p>