That is quite a large amount of debt to have hanging over your head when you're really just trying to start your life, but you really have to weigh it against other choices you intend to make to see if it's worth it or not.

1.) What field of work do you intend to go into? Since it's a good university, I'd expect it to be something that will eventually earn you an adequate living. Now, let's say you come out and get a job right off the bat (best case scenario) -- how much do you think you'd be making each month? Will it be enough to pay for your basic necessities (i.e. food, living arrangements, bills, etc.) AND still be able to pay down your debt in any significant way? (You want to be able to pay off more than your minimum payment each month because otherwise it'll mostly go towards interest and not towards the principal balance on the loans. You'll be in debt for a wicked long time and wind up paying way more if you're only making minimum monthly payments.)

2.) Once out of school, what's your next goal? Is it to settle down and buy a house? With that sort of debt it'll be unlikely you'll be able to buy a house for quite some time. (No bank worth their salt is going to loan you money when you have that high of a debt already.) If this is something you're interested in doing relatively soon after (meaning within the next 5 years or so, depending on how quickly you can pay down the debt), you may want to opt for the less expensive school.

3.) Does the more expensive school have a job placement program to help make sure you'll definitely have a job to go to once you graduate? I can't tell you how many people I know that have excellent degrees and then got out of school only to find there was little to nothing available for them when they went out applying. If the school offers help in placement, then that could potentially be worth the extra debt, depending on how adamant you are about working in your chosen field. (Obviously, if you have no debt when you get out of the less expensive school then you can bide your time a little more at a menial job while you search for your dream position. If you have high debt, though, you're not going to have that much luxury to do so.)

4.) How are you with handling money in general? Do you find yourself able to budget reasonably well? (With the smaller amounts you have handled, I mean.) Are you always scrounging for cash? Do you have any savings to speak of? (However small it might be?) If you think you'd be able to put together a budget and really stick to it, then the debt is definitely much less scary. If you're constantly strapped for cash, have no idea how to put together a savings plan, or have ever really had issues covering bills, that debt is going to be a BIG deal for you to have to tackle without having any experience to really help you out.

If you're serious about potentially taking on that amount of debt, you'd be smart to start looking at your finances in a serious way and trying to make a budget for yourself based off of whatever income source you have at the moment. (Even if it's just listing out things like: [i]cellphone bill, car insurance, clothing budget, entertainment allotment, etc = X amount per month for all necessities. Above and beyond that, I will shoot to set aside $10 every week into a savings account and I will not touch that money, except for real emergencies.[/i] Creating a small budget plan can help to start put you in the right mindset that you'll need to be disciplined about paying back the sort of debt you're thinking about taking on. You really, really need to be disciplined or you'll ruin your credit quite quickly, which can make it difficult to do so many other things in life. [i]Srsly[/i].)

Honestly, if this were my choice, I'd probably go to one of the slightly lesser schools and be without the debt. (Hey, if it's good enough for the royal family, right? XD) School can be stressful enough without that scary figure looming in the background, waiting for you finish so that it can consume you afterwards. I can definitely understand the appeal of going to a super elite school -- I mean it's [i]definitely[/i] a huge ego boost for you and it'll look great on paper -- but what else will it offer you besides that? Is it going to give you a better advantage (such as a placement program, like I was mentioning earlier) or is it really just a superficial "better school" and you're just paying all that extra money for the privilege of associating yourself with the name of the school. (Think of expensive designer clothing -- take a $5 blue teeshirt and slap a D&G logo on it, then you can instantly tack on extra zeros to the original price tag. You pay for the brand name, not the quality of the item.)

Anyway, all my two cents.