We had a similar debate and price difference for S18, $50K per year for American (PPL with scholarship) vs $30K for state flagship. Decided to stay instate (CA) and save the money for grad school and its worked out very well, including a DC internship that was better than his classmate who went to American.
When we visited, we didn’t think much of the campus and location, S would have preferred GWU over American (and UVA over both - the quality of students he met was more important to him than the location, even though he’d like to be in DC eventually).