yenting: I thought we were asking what the person going to school should do; not what the patient should want.
In any event, the answer to the question here is that it really does depend what sort of program you are going to. The job market is what should determine which school you want to go to.
If it is a field like dentistry where it doesn’t matter what school you go to, then you should definitely choose stonybrook for 25k over columbia for 50k. And that is why stonybrook is more selective than columbia.
If it is a field like law where it really does matter which school you go to, then you should certainly choose columbia for 50k over New York Law School for free. (also over fordam for free, in my opinion)