@markcheng My son is in Engineering Physics and Mathematics at UIUC. It’s a very good program. We are in state, so it was a reasonable value for the quality of the program vs. the cost at his other options. Unless there is some other appeal for UIUC, I think Rutgers is a no-brainer since you are in-state there. Or maybe you have good financial aid or scholarship offers at some other top program like Maryland or Michigan that would also make it a lot less than UIUC? Those are about the only other programs that offer merit aid that would seem to be a tier up from Rutgers to justify any added expense, in my opinion, at least based on academics alone. Obviously many top physics programs are at private elites or state flagships that don’t offer merit money and are just as expensive or more than UIUC, so I didn’t include those.
I don’t think Physics at Illinois is worth paying full OOS tuition if you have other good options, but that’s just my opinion, especially since you have a solid in-state flagship option. Perhaps it makes sense for a few majors like BioEng, CS, Civil, Accounting, EE/CompE and maybe a couple others, but even that is debatable given that Purdue and probably other schools are less expensive and similarly rated in many of those majors.