Most of the posts in this thread support a position that being in the Honors College or Honors Program at a large public or less-selective private can be the best compromise between affordability and quality educational experience. Including smaller classes, more faculty interaction, enhanced internship and research opportunities, and being surrounded by very bright students. That’s where we are parked.
Engineering or the sciences MIGHT be an exception, I’m not certain across the board. It probably matters less if grad school in the engineering/scientific/medical specialty isn’t in the immediate plan.
We saw a post during the summer that (I’m probably paraphrasing a little) “the Honors Program at [College X who offers full OOS tuition based on high stats] is full of students who were eligible for Top 20 schools but simply needed to spend less.” It was a huge Eureka moment for us and really shaped the development of D’s list. Which, just to clarify, doesn’t happen to include that particular College X.