@lostaccount has a fine post. We could go back and forth about the value of $160K over a lifetime, 50% score ranges, starting salaries and historical data, but my opinion remains strongly the same, and here is how I will summarize it (and then stop posting in this thread)
- The OP clearly indicates he'd prefer MIT and can do it with no debt.
So there are two possibilities for regret:
1: Student regrets spending the $160K for MIT and feels UCSD would have served him just as well. SOLUTION: Live 20% more frugally for 6-8 years and recover the money.
2: Student regrets not enrolling at MIT and wonders how that might have been. SOLUTION: Hope a time machine is invented so he can get a do-over.
It is a no-brainer.