My son went to our state flagship…a mid-tier southern school. He wanted to go there after visiting a few times (older brother went there).
He received large scholarships…free tuition plus $4500 per year in other awards, so the cost was quite low.
It’s not an easy school to get a high premed GPA in. I belong to a Facebook group of premed parents from that school, and weeding is heavy. Kids who were “A students” in high school get smacked in the face with their first B or C or worse.
You can easily drop a grade or two if you don’t follow directions, miss too many classes, etc. Tests are difficult, and if you’re used to having info “spoon fed to you” (by some high schools) then you can easily fail or do poorly on tests…until you change strategies.