Which are the “top ranked” ones? Purdue and TAMU, which make it into the US News 50-100 range?
Or is the OP referring to engineering rankings? If the latter, is he referring to specific engineering specialties, or to a general engineering ranking? What kind of program does his child want?
It looks like we’re talking about net prices that could range from $7500/year (for Mississippi State) to as much as $32K/year (for Purdue, if no scholarship money comes in), just for tuition.
At any rate, we don’t have a very clear understanding of:
- the final net price differences
- the true quality differences
- the differences that truly matter to the OP’s child
So it’s hard to give a good answer. Is it worth paying more for a higher ranked college? Well, maybe.
It depends on how much more we’re really talking about, for how much of a ranking difference, and whether the ranking factors really matter to us. Maybe Purdue’s or TAMU’s engineering rank is driven up by quality in areas that don’t even interest the OP’s kid.