I have a daughter at NC State and she loves it there. She likes the large anonymous classes and that she was able to move off campus after her freshmen years and live with people not in college. My other 2 daughters in HS prefer a LAC.
OP is not asking parents to raid 401K and sell house and mom to get a job at Target. OP states they want him to go to an elite school. It is on them to decide if they are overextended and to educate themselves on how to pay and on the value of an elite college, however that is defined, I see the amounts of 200K, 250K, bandied about, as if an education from a public is free. In NC it’s about 20K per year, and don’t count on your kid getting out in 4 years. So there may well be a year or 2 of lost adult wages because an extra year is needed, or just taken.
Plus you have to look at retention rates. It’s not just about prestige, but I won’t deny that is important. If your kid gets into Duke or Vandy, but goes to a school ranked 50 or a 100, that will likely be less expensive in the short run. And certainly he can live a rewarding life. One might wonder though what the more elite college degree might have mattered re