Sorry guys, I gotta disagree here. I've been around higher ed all my life, my mom and cousin are both Profs/Admins at Kelley School of Biz at IUPUI and Wharton, so I do somewhat know what I am talking about.

There's (99% of the time) a direct corollary between a school's ranking and the quality of education you will get. While education is first and foremost, having a big name school on your diploma can and most often does go a long way to getting one better and higher paying job offers immediately upon graduation. If you dont believe me, look up numbers for placement and salary info for Duke's school of biz vs. UNC's school of biz (there's an average $40k diff, if ya'll are too lazy). Both are top 10 graduate schools, yet Duke is private and their program costs $110k, while UNC's is $60k. The other aspect of going to a bigger name school is your classmates and making connections. This is moreso important in graduate school, but it's relevant in undergrand, and a simple fact that well-connected folks are going to most often go to big name schools for their educations. It never hurts to have a friend who's dad is an exec at some fortune 500 company. You'll often find that in your working life, many of your jobs will come not from randomly sending our your resume, but from your personal network and connections. Being 'well-connected' is always a major bonus. Lastly, companies and employers do favor bigger name schools, and will recruit more heavily from them and generally be more competitive toward attracting employees than they will at lower tier schools (hence better salary expectations).

Now, besides the above, one big thing to keep in mind is picking a school that fits in well with your profession of choice. What exactly do you want to do? Private CPA? Corporate Finance? Hybrid with something else? Different schools have different areas of strength, for example UNC's MBA program specializes in finance theory, whereas Duke's strength is in business management theory. Keep this in mind, ask questions about it, and try to figure out if you are a good fit for the program, and the program is a good fit for you. Don't rule out schools that aren't in your state either, unless for some reason you absolutely have to be near your home and family. I'd recommend heavily against this, your primary concern should be your education.

The obvious major downside is the cost. Private schools always cost more, and depending on what you go with, you can end up with some significant debt. Cost of a program is also usually a function of a particular school's ranking and popularity. If you can get a copy of Newsweek's published guide on this, you can look up some schools and see where they stand. These rankings are often heavily criticised, but for the most part they are an accurate portrayl of the qualify of education you can expect, salary expectations, and cost of the program. This really boils down to A. your comfort level and B. a calculated risk. The business/accounting field has been strong for years and years now, so the risk of the job being commoditized (like mine, technology) and/or having salaries bottom out for some reason is extremely low to nonexistant, so you take your pick. In terms of the amount of debt you are willing to carry, is again a function of how well you can do to reduce this burden up front (scholarships and the like), and how much you expect to make and if you can get your future employer to help defray some of these costs. If you graudate in the top of your class, you can expect some heavy competition from prospective employers, use that to your advantage.

Some people are also of the mind that college is a waste of time. I honestly just ignore these folks, they always turn out to be uneducated themselves. College isn't for everyone depending on what you want to do in life, but it certainly isn't remotely a waste of time.

Best of luck kiddo!