Will Work 4 Beer said:
Yeah, but you have to a) live in a state with a top public university and b) be able to get them into it; in-state competition at say, UC Berkeley, is pretty fierce. Paying out-of-state tuition to a public university is not much cheaper than a private school.
You also need to look at the overall opportunity cost. Some of the biggest expenses in a college education are more or less fixed: room&board, going to school vs. working. So if going away to private school costs:
($30K x 4) + ($25Kx4 for not working) + $(10K room/board x 4) = $260K
public school should cost about:
($7.5K X 4) + ($25Kx 4$ for not working) + ($10K room/board x 4) = $170K
I think you can pick up most of the delta in the first 5 years, if not sooner.
Another point is, that $30k is just the sticker price. You may be able to get state aid/merit/athletic scholarships to cover the rest. We had to do a few "show-downs" with the financial aid office, but we got a "discount" of about 50% of sticker price, and my parents and I split the rest. So it would have cost my parents the same if not more to send me to state U.
Sure, if you don't have a good state school in your state, you go out of state. Pay the price for a year, establish residency (hire a lawyer if you need to). The next three years will be at the lower in-state rate. I don't know how much more competitive prestigious state schools are than prestigious private schools. Prestigious schools are competitive, period. Sure UC Berkeley is competitive, but isn't Stanford too?
You make a good point re: opportunity cost. But what average college-bound high school grad has an opportunity cost of $25k for 9 months (since they can work in the summer, right?). I don't know what the average state school tuition is now, but my local state universities, it is a little over half the price you have indicated (it is more like $4k/yr). I'd guess the on-campus room and board at your average private school is more than the on-campus room and board at a public school (higher expectations, nicer facilities at private schools). Here's the comparison I have:
So if going away to private school costs:
($30K x 4) + ($10.5Kx4 for not working) + $(10K room/board x 4) = $202K
public school should cost about:
($5K X 4) + ($10.5Kx 4$ for not working) + ($9K room/board x 4) = $98K
Private school will "cost" about twice as much as public school. That $104,000 price differential is pretty substantial in my book, and it would require quite a bit more time than five years to make up the difference. 10 years? 20? Never? Why not go to a public U, then use that $104,000 as a down payment on your first house.
In my experience, I haven't seen a big difference in earning potential between public and private university educated workers, at least not to the degree WW4B has alluded. Unless you are comparing a Harvard grad to a Middle Southwestern Podunk University grad.