How do you best approach the creation of a college list (specifically ED)?

[MWolf]

@DadTwoGirls

I would be mildly surprised if out of state public universities turned out to be as affordable as UIUC in-state.

You need to run the NPCs. At least for us the in-state public universities were the most affordable universities in the US. BU was very expensive for us, but of course your results may be different, and the NPCs should give you a good hint regarding what to expect.

Depending of the OP’s GPA and test scores, OOS colleges could easily be cheaper than UIUC. My kid was accepted to UMN and was offered a $15,000 a year scholarship, which would have mean t$16,600 tuition. In state for UIUC, studying biological sciences, would have cost $17,200.