Went in state,
lived at home (commuted 2-2.5~ hours twice a day)
lived cheap (no real spending outside of school bills)
Had scholarships which knocked off 50% of the sticker price.
After all that, and the high interest rates at the time on my initial loans it was north of 200k.
My parents helped with food and rent (living at home) but everything else I took a loan off.
I considered my loans heavily predatory and wish I could have done things differently.
Comparing that to my alma mater (Johns Hopkins), a private university, your loans work out to more than my total cost for tuition for four years (2004-2008). Even looking up their current rates, the average four year tuition after student aid is ~130k. Without any student aid, it hits ~$200k.
Go to public schools, live at home, get out with little debt. It's really not a difficult choice, and it gets even easier if you know about the existence of community colleges.
Stop anchoring impressionable kids to ridiculous tuition numbers.
Edit: the highest average in-state tuition is Vermont with just over $17k. If you're willing to go to a state school, you can do it for under $80k for 4 years.
https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing/fig...
Granted I should have went to a community college to get my basic classes sorted out.
But being a first generation immigrant and the first to go to college I had little guidance and a high pressure to appease my parents.
At the same time they could not make any payments on my behalf but also did not allow me to go to community college either.
Some would say I should have been smarter, but my parents were sold the "American Dream",
I was forced to foot the bill :)
Really this would have been great to know from my high school advisor to be able to convince my parents to let me consider other types of universities.