According to the Interwebz, in-state tuition for a year at LSU is $11,954, not much more than some of these smaller schools I reference. It doesn't say how many hours that's for or what exactly a "year" means, but I'm assuming that's a spring and a fall semester, no summer, for five classes each. Out of state tuition is $28,631 annually.
But then it lists something called "Other Expenses" which is thousands of dollars, and is not the same as Books & Supplies or Room & Board. With all those things added in, in-state students pay $35,158/yr and out of states pay $51,836/yr.
Jeez.
No way in hell I'd recommend somebody go to a place like that. It's not like they know a better kind of math, history, or whatever, than somewhere else. The "prestige" of a more well-known university also doesn't hold water when the research is clear that students who excel wherever they are succeed at a much higher rate post-school-career than students who are run-of-the-mill wherever they are. i.e., take a Valedictorian at Podunk U and an average kid from Harvard, the Podunk U kid has a much higher success rate.
Go somewhere cheap and excel. If a university is where you need to be in the first place. $140 - 175k for in-state or $208 - 260k for out-of-state for a degree from a place that largely makes you dumber and doesn't even teach you how to boil crawfish? Nah.
