“Paying for a private university is worth it if it’s a very good one.”
What’s the definition of “very good”? HYPSM? Where do you draw the line? If it’s only privates that are better than Berkeley/UCLA/UVA/UMich (i.e. top ~20) then that’s a pretty short list. But if you are willing to go below that then why wouldn’t you consider paying OOS for one of those 4?