It is looking like a choice is going to have to be made between these two shortly. TCNJ will cost approximately $30,000/per year less than Brandeis, but parents can afford it without student or parent needing to take any loans. However, student (from New Jersey) likely will go to some sort of grad school and at that point will be on their own to finance it . [Parents may agree to help with grad school costs out of the cost savings if student goes to TCNJ rather than to Brandeis.] Student is a social justice warrior type, also interested in history, probably will major in history or political science or sociology or some combination thereof. Career-wise, student appears likely headed to become a political journalist or a civil rights lawyer or something like that. Parents (one an ivy grad who feels that the ivy name helped open some doors in their life) care somewhat about prestige and college name recognition more than the student does…but ultimately care most about the student being happy. Any thoughts re: which you would choose? (Will also cross-post this in the Brandeis discussion forum.)
I would save the $120,000 over 4 years. From what I’ve seen (TCNJ grad who has friends who got PhDs from Princeton, Penn State and UNC Chapel Hill) it doesn’t matter for grad school.