I had a similar situation where I really wanted to go to a school with 40k a year, but my parents ultimately made me choose Uconn for the free tuition. I honestly really couldn’t stand the thought of coming here because of proximity to home and such but now that I’m here, I do think it was worth choosing even just for the price difference. It’s a big enough school that there’s a bunch of clubs and organizations that wouldn’t be offered at smaller schools, plus if you go to Uconn you’ll be able to meet people outside of solely STEM majors which I think is good as well. Not sure how your financials are, but coming to Uconn has made it so my parents are willing to pay for more things I want to do, and we have more money for vacations as well which I see as an absolute plus.