It's worth mentioning that if you pay out-of-state tuition to attend a highly ranked State school, you are almost certainly not going to become a median earner.

It's worth mentioning that if you pay out-of-state tuition to attend a highly ranked State school, you are almost certainly not going to become a median earner. You will comfortably find yourself spending most of your career in the top 2 quintiles, if not the top quintile altogether (~$100,000 salary puts you in the top quintile). If you're below median and would like to attend, you're going to receive FAFSA, Pell Grants, on top of university-specific discriminatory pricing that favors the poor. There's no reason one should pay out-of-state tuition outside their own State unless it's at a "top-tier engineering school", in which case the point is basically moot.