Perhaps unsurprisingly I got my current job because the owner of the company is the brother of one of my professors.
I guess what I find most disappointing in retrospect was that I wasn't encouraged to research further out from the local area. My original comment may have been a bit hyperbolized in that clearly I knew about state schools, but my idea of what constituted a "state college" was influenced by the three within an hour drive of where I grew up. In my state's college system these three also happen to rank toward the bottom of most lists in terms of job placement and campus quality of life. I toured two of them and wasn't exactly impressed. So belief became that "state college" meant "cheap college", as in the degree would be worthless. Again, this is the naivete of a rural-raised 17 year old.
In the summer before my final year at my expensive university, I did a "Research Experience for Undergraduates" internship thing at one of my state's larger research universities and was blown away by how different (and better) it was compared to the state schools I was familiar with. I was 21 at this point and had a better understanding that even though it was about a 7 hour drive from home, it really wasn't that far away, and if I had known about it when I was graduating high school it would've been doable.
For curiosity's sake, I just looked up what the tuition plus room and board for this state school, and in 2016 it's still less than half of what I paid for my school in 2005.
But that's all in the past. I think I got a decent, though not stellar, education from professors who genuinely seem to care (even now, as I stay in contact with a few), in addition to the networking opportunities. In the end I don't regret it, but I do try to advocate to my younger relatives that they should shop around and take the decision seriously, and of course ask me for guidance should they need it.