The OP is living in the US, so he will not need a visa for training.
I have to agree that a lot of the big schools pushing through Indian and JAA pilots without really caring may not be the best way to go.
Why not shop around your local few airports, go to a smal FTO, and if you feel like the people are nice, hook yourself for a trial lesson.
Whether it says JimBob's fancy aviation school or AveragePilot's FTO on your CV doesn't say nothing about your flying skills.....and who wants to train for his PPL in uniform anyways
edit: Re. prices, it depends on the aircraft you get to fly, how many multi hrs you want, etc.... I would say you end up at around 30-50k Dollars.