<p>I'm in the same dilemma as many others, prestigious school vs. cheap school. CMU costs $33K for my family. My parents can afford about $25k, and the rest would be my responsibility through loans and work-study. Maryland costs about $6K after a few scholarships. The additional cost of Carnegie Mellon is not a huge burden to my family, but I'm skeptical as to whether paying an additional $100k for an amazing computer science program over a good one is a wise move. Even though I would only end up with $20-30K of loans after undergrad, I don't want to feel guilty about making my parents paying so much money. </p>
<p>Either school's social environment is fine with me; I'm only concerned about the program strength. I visited Carnegie Mellon last week, and I was floored by the quality of professors, variety of research areas, and top-notch facilities and career services. I can't find any post-grad surveys for Maryland, and there seems to be much less of an emphasis on internship and undergrad research opportunities. But their ACM-ICPC team got 20th place in the world, so the program obviously has some brilliant students and professors. I've also heard good things about job placement from Maryland, I just can't find any concrete data online.</p>
<p>I'd appreciate any input about either school. Is the quality of education significantly better at Carnegie Mellon? Will a motivated and fairly smart, but not brilliant student be able to participate in research projects/internships as an undergrad at either school? What about the peer group at Maryland-- is the average computer science student a smart kid who wants a challenge, or someone just trying to get by? Would you pay $100k more for a Carnegie Mellon degree? Is a Carnegie Mellon SCS experience worth $100k more, if that can even be quantified? Will not going to Carnegie Mellon permanently close any doors to me?</p>
<p>Only a week left to decide...Thank you very much for any input!</p>
<p>(btw, I was also accepted to Rice and Cornell, and they're around the same price as CMU. I'm leaning towards CMU over those, but I'm still open to any arguments!)</p>