[dpritchett]

Tuition at the University of Alabama is about $9,000/year for in-state students. It was half that when I attended in the early 2000s. It's not a highly ranked CS school but there are plenty of resources available and it's worked out well enough for me so far careerwise. I was working 40 hours a week throughout grad school, so my lifetime student loan total amount maxed out at around 1/3 of your quote.

On the flip side, my high school roommate dropped out of college as a freshman and he is doing just great working for a big-name Valley startup.