Go to the cheaper school. I know a duke grad >$200,000 in debt. That grad is miserable, because he/she is taking home less than the surgical tech working next to them.... And it's going to be a long time until that changes for that person. The other thing is that the duke grad works for a foreign trained physician who could care less that
the PA went to duke.... because at the end of the day, PA school is just PA school to him. Don't buy into the hype if it costs actual money to do so.
And just to clarify, the surg tech doesn't get paid as much as the PA, but doesn't have any debt and is taxed much lower.