Penn State is $17K/yr in-state tuition, $30K/yr out of state. Add in another 10K/yr for room and board and it is not hard to see owing $100K. One of the most expensive public schools (for main campus - branch campuses are much less).

As for the athletics, UChi used to be Big Ten football. They won the Big Ten 7 times, and were National Champs (per polls) twice. Reed doesn't even have NCAA teams. Wouldn't matter for some kids but I don't think mine would go to a school that didn't have sports. Eldest sort of wishes that she went to a school with football for that "experience" - she saw the tailgating when her club softball team played U of Maryland and she wondered if she should have gone to Penn State. DD16 is interested in UChi and plans on contacting the coach about her sport.

Different folks want different experiences. But back to the original post - you can get free tuition if you are a good student, so the kids we discuss in this forum could get free tuition somewhere. There are public colleges that already offer this.