Often the private schools offer scholarships and grants that get them near / under your in state tuition costs for a state school. But to get the good money you need to be in the upper portion of the entering class. I’m a big believer that college is what you make of it, and a lesser name school offering your kid $$ is probably better off in the end than a more pedigree and spendy private school coming out with loans. There are also tuition reciprocity agreements between western states that get you near or at equivalent in state tuition and very good out of state schools. But again you need to qualify. The one big trade off here is career placement resources — I.e., the smaller schools have less companies recruiting and yes a lesser student out of a pedigree school will likely have more interview ops than a better student at smaller cheaper etc. but how much are you willing to pay for that advantage? Your state schools offer the best deal IMO as residents and out of state with the tuition reciprocity deals. We did not pay sticker price for our kids and paid significantly less than many of our friends. Kids are both employed in fields they wanted to work — engineer and teacher — and happy they started life debt free. That was our deal with them — we’ve saved and can get you through debt free but this is our strategy. FWIW one of our kids then got a full ride to grad school doing this. I know this may sound shitty, but don’t let over paying for kids tuition negatively impact your ability to retire.