You can meet those people if you move out to the coasts after college. It's a long freakin' way from Kansas to California and if your goal is to have as little

You can meet those people if you move out to the coasts after college. It's a long freakin' way from Kansas to California and if your goal is to have as little tuition and/or debt as possible to begin with, you're pretty much forced to go into whatever state you grew up in the U.S. I'm from the same state, and I chose the four year traditional route and it worked for me since I had lots of scholarships. If I didn't have as many, I may have started at the Community College instead. Additionally, your point about 1st tier versus 2nd tier is kind of off when most of the time people go to community college to get their general ed. requirements out of the way and then transfer to the larger Uni for the specialized classes. If you're majoring in C.S. and you want to take Physics I,II, Intro level English, and programming I/II that's going to be nearly the same no matter which Uni you're at.