<p>Congratulations on being offered admission to two excellent universities. CMU is recognized as having an outstanding CS program. W&M is recognized as an outstanding liberal arts and business school. W&M is not that well known for its CS program - that doesn’t mean that the program is mediocre. However, the graduate outcomes for a CS major may be quite different. I took a brief look at the graduate survey for W&M and the breadth of employers and salary ranges were quite different from CMU. So there appears to be a strong advantage to CMU over W&M for CS. However, if you don’t stick with CS there is no advantage to going to CMU - - the opposite IMO. </p>
<p>If you know for sure that you will stick with CS then you have to balance the pros and cons of your different options. CMU without financial aid is too expensive IMO. Did you apply to any other in-state schools? The CS programs at UVA and VT are larger than W&M’s and will give you exposure to more potential employers. Without financial aid I’d pick UVA/VT over CMU or W&M for CS. If you get significant financial aid then of course I’d go with CMU (but aid mostly in grants not loans).</p>