Do you have any family living in other states? For instance, if you have grandparents living in Florida, you can get the Florida in-state resident rate.
I’ve heard that it’s fairly easy to establish residency in Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arkansas. (@WayOutWestMom, can you comment on NM?) If you wanted to leave the east coast, those places have some relatively inexpensive state schools that would be in a city with public transportation (I think), and not too distant from natural beauties.
- U. of Utah: Salt Lake City
- U. of New Mexico: Albuquerque
- New Mexico State: Las Cruces
- U. of Nevada: Las Vegas
- U. of Nevada: Reno
- U. of Arkansas: Fayetteville
That said, New York’s in-state rates will beat some of these, and you may qualify for free tuition if your family’s income is below $125k as part of the Excelsior program. If your family’s income is below $80k then you may also be able to use the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) toward colleges (it might only be for privates since the Excelsior would make the publics tuition free, but I would definitely reach out to them to find out more). Or if the publics have a charge for some of their support services, then perhaps the TAP could go towards that.
Anyway, just throwing some thoughts out there in case any of them sound appealing to you.