My experience coaching teenagers for 17 years is to go where your heart tells you, regardless of the $$. I went from lower-middle-class to an Ivy with only partial financial aid and nothing has ever been more WORTH IT. I had loans after school but got a fantastic public-service job with an organization that only recruits at Ivies and then got into great law school partly because my degree was from an Ivy (huge percentage of Ivy kids at my non-Ivy-but top 20 law school). Again, I got financial aid but took on loans and again, got a great job and paid the loans back. It has nothing to do with what you major in - one of my roommates was a Psych major who went to medical school, the Classics major is a Partner at Morgan Stanley, an Economics major went to film school and makes documentaries, a Mechanical Engineering went into IT and then venture capital, a History major is now on Broadway, to say nothing of how many run heir own businesses. The education is one thing, but the experience, connections, friendships forged and sense of community I got attending an Ivy were priceless… worth every dime and would do it again, because it is what I wanted. DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY. If you are happy, you will work, if you work at what you love, you will succeed, if you succeed - you can pay your student loans