The social experience is important too, I would argue. There must be a good way to combine that with reasonably priced education.

Not all major(ish) colleges are an arm and leg the way the Ivy's and some other upper crust/common names are. Certainly there are many very good state institutions at relatively reasonable cost/value. Michigan State is order 15K tuition for in-state.

My in-state school had similar tuition (in 10yrs ago dollars) and had guaranteed, no-questions-asked scholarships that covered most of it if you exceeded an SAT or ACT score (not a super high one either).