<p>@spuding102 - The fact that you are graduating debt free is a major factor in the advice you might have received. If you had said you would end up $100K in debt going to this school, or even $50K in debt, I would have said you were nuts. Not to put too fine a point in it or anything. Now a lot of people would still say that saving that amount of money remains the smarter decision. But @Pennylane2011 is right that it then becomes more of a family decision as to how much they want to sacrifice to send you there. There is a lot of latitude in that term, sacrifice. We cannot know the details, so it indeed is a family decision.</p>
<p>But I am not sure the advice would have been as one-sided as you assume. Usually the student is talking about taking on a lot of debt (or having his family take on additional debt) and that really is different.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you at college! I am sure it will be great for you.</p>