The math degree from ND is not worth 4x the cost, but the college experience may be. I attended ND and would not go to any other school if I had the choice today. I was pretty thrilled when my son got in last year. And conflicted when he chose another school that was more highly rated in his major. Per the above comments, OSU is likely as highly rated or higher in math. Ratings are tricky as they skew toward the big research universities and ND tends to be lower in many STEM ratings. But I know for his major (computer science) they either placed 100% in jobs or 100% graduated in 4 years (maybe both). And their grads make just as much or more out of college as most of the higher rated schools. So do you care about research rankings? But for my son, they had 5 tracks or concentrations - and none he was really interested in. His school had 15 tracks on CS. And although he went to his first ND football game at 3 months old, he is a musician and college sports mean nothing to him. But he will drive 6 hours to see a concert. He said he could not spend 4 years in South Bend. He wanted a city with a music scene. In the end, we save $200,000. I am happy to save it, but if it was the right fit, I would have happily (well maybe not happily) paid his way. It really comes down to personal situation and what your family values. You can spend your time and money on an educational experience like ND, or save the money and help with grad school, or help with down payment on a house. For me, I would have taken on a little debt to go to ND when I was a student, but that was before the rampant inflation that hit colleges due to bloated administrations. I have had grads from ND, IL, Northwestern, work for me. ND will help you get the first job - but after one week of working for me, where they want to school does not matter at all. If your child is passionate about ND, I would consider it. It is truly a unique experience. But if she is more focused on the academics, she can likely get that at many schools. ND will do more hand holding than a Big Ten and has a much higher 4 year graduation rate. But a kid who can get into ND, likely will not need that hand holding at tOSU and will graduate on time. And , in fact, may graduate in 3 years (more savings) as the Bigs are more generous with APs. In our case, my son will likely graduate in 3 years (I am trying to get him to stay 4 and double major) - and our family net cost will go from about $270,000-285,000 to zero. So that helps me sleep at night! But what really lets me sleep is that he found his fit. They need to live their lives, no our dreams.