I'm a mechanical engineer, BSME 02 from SUNY Buffalo. But I went back to school and got a degree in computer science because it turned out that there was so much overlap. I was designing heat exchangers, but the tech is so old that I was able to write a program to do most of my job. In my area, mechanical engineering didn't pay that well, but software engineering did. I all but abandoned my mechanical engineering past and i'm a full time software engineer now. I love having the mechanical background and I still love manufacturing, but there's just no money in it in comparison.
I don't see the value in out of state tuition. Right now my alma mater is about 8k per year and i have yet to meet someone that can do anything that i can't. You don't buy intelligence.