re: College Choices: LSU vs Student Debt

First, kudos to you for gathering info to help you make an informed decision. Too many young people make this decision on feelings, not data. They are swayed by a fun campus overnight visit, the attractiveness (or not) of their potential fellow students, or some other incredibly superficial thing (like cafeteria food quality).

My two cents, as an LSU (undergrad) and Tulane (grad) alum who works in higher education:
—GA Tech is definitely not worth it at that pricing point.
—Va Tech is a great school with a lovely campus, but $100K for an undergraduate education is not a good idea. It’s not a high-wage field in the early years (unlike chemical engineering, finance, or a few others where starting salaries might allow you to live frugally for a few years and quickly pay off the debt). It is entirely unrealistic to think that you can hold a part time job while completing a top-5 architecture program...those people virtually live in their studios 24 hrs a day.
—LSU at low/no cost gives you an incredible amount of flexibility. You have lots of credit already, so you can go plunging right into ARCH courses and figure out if the field really is for you. You may discover that your true interests lie elsewhere, and you won’t feel obligated to stick to a degree track since the cost is modest. Who knows, you might discover that art history is really fun, or teaching, or graphic design...go find out.
—LSU’s low cost means you can, if you want, take on a little bit of debt to do amazing things. Semester or summer or year abroad: it’s possible, if you haven’t borrowed money for anything else. Unpaid summer internship in a cool city? Ditto....you’re not overspending on tuition, so you can afford to take the kinds of opportunities that can change your life. Agressively seek out those opportunities while at LSU; they won’t find you, you’ll have to go looking for them.
—LSU’s quality of gen ed varies widely: if you get a terrible instructor and a bunch of idiots in a class, it can be a drag. But you can always do more, read more, interact more with the professor....you can get an absolutely excellent education at LSU, if you exert yourself. Sadly, way too many lazy brains on that campus fritter away their TOPS funding doing as little as possible, receive a degree, and drag down the reputation through their continued mediocrity.
—it’s the currently popular mindset to think of managing yourself as a brand, and attending the “right” college might seem like a smart branding step. But, wait, hold the phone: you AREN’T a brand...you’re a person. Your skills and abilities will determine your path in life, especially in a creative field like architecture. The best school in the world won’t turn you into a brilliant designer if you aren’t inherently creative or visual. A degree from VTU might get you an interview, but it won’t get or keep a job.