Look at opportunity cost. If UT is free and the rest are full pay, run the numbers on going to UT and investing the difference of what it would cost to attend one of the others. After a 40 year career, that will be a nice little nest egg, like multiple million dollars nice…$3,700,000ish to be specific. Posters always like to say “you’ll be able to pay back the difference if you choose school X.” They lose sight of the fact that the money is spent and can’t be used for anything else. That $250,000 give or take is gone, invested in your education. If you chose UT, you get the education, sure, MAYBE a slightly lesser education, MAYBE less connections, both are arguable, BUT, you still have $250,000 to do something else. In short, any full pay private will have to make you $3,700,000 MORE than your UT degree just to break even.