Oh, just one other quick point on this "in-state" approach if your kid has good enough grades to be in hailing distance of scholarships, and especially if they have some interesting extra-curriculars that they would apply at the college-level (like they play the flute, or does drama, etc.):
A lot of schools are looking for geographical diversity. So where Ole Miss or Arkansas might not throw any money at your tuba-playing daughter from Louisiana, the University of Iowa or Minnesota or San Diego might. My kid had really good grades and decent extra-curriculars but nothing spectacular -- but he was from Texas and there weren't a whole helluva lot of kids from Texas wanting to go to the University of Oregon. They gave him a scholarship which we ended up cajoling them to increase to equal the out-of-state differential -- all because they wanted more Deep South students for their student body diversity.
But, you do have to be proactive about enaging the school and there are additional costs associated with air travel and the like.