Go the cheap route for undergrad, and focus on making good grades.
That's my advice. Rutgers is big enough that you can find a place to fit in and be happy, but save the big money and trying to get to a stretch school for graduate school, if that's what you intend to do. I got into great eastern schools, and was crushed when my parents basically told me that they couldn't afford to help out at all financially, and so I'd have to go in state. (Well, not a state school, it wound up being an in-state private school w/ a great scholarship) In retrospect I'm so glad I did that, because I have less than half the debt I would have had if I had gone to a $30K/yr undergrad school.
p.s.
Interestingly, I saw a survey a few years ago about perception of degree values, and in Texas, Rutgers was way above where it "should" be, because everyone here thought it was a private school and not a state school.
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