<p>I have narrowed my options down to three schools which I have admission at: Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and UMich</p>
<p>My current plans are to major in EECS / ECE (label varies by school) and then get a Masters in Engineering somewhere in the field. I'm not where to choose.</p>
<p>I want the following (in no particular order) to factor in my decision:</p>
<p>1) Cost
2) Quality of Education
3) Research Opportunites
4) Grad Schools (where do people with a good/above average gpa usually go?)
5) Recruitment by companies in industry.</p>
<p>UM will cost me about 26k/year
Cornell and CMU will cost me about 62k/yr.</p>
<p>Do the math. CMU ECE graduates are the highest paid engineers in the country by starting salary. With the Computer Science, Robotics, and Engineering programs at CMU, you’ll make back your debt in a few years, and be glad for the rest of your career you went for carnegie mellon’s high powered education.</p>
<p>Michigan is also a good school, but CMU will define you as a performance engineer. </p>
<p>Cornell engineering doesn’t leave the classroom; you will want the real world aspect UofM or CMU will give you.</p>
<p>rjk knows a lot about UMichigan, but he’s a homer. In this case, however, he’s right. Lots of prospective engineers change majors. Michigan will give you an easier time doing that and cost you less in the process. And you won’t have to have that huge salary (not something likely to happen your first year out) to pay your CMU debt. To say they have the highest salary does not mean they make much more than UMich grads. Engineers don’t get paid for where they go to school. They get paid for their skills and knowledge of systems. First year engineers barely know anything compared to what they will know after a year. And you might not be an engineer. Save your money. Go to UMich. I have no horse in this race.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments! Could anyone comment on the brand value of the schools? Specifically, what are the chances of getting into a top grad school or recruited by a top company given equal performance at UMich vs CMU? I’m not really interested in prestige from a brag value point of view. </p>
<p>Equal from either school. Seriously, it’s just plain silly to spend that much more money to attend a peer institution. Anyone who recommends spending 144K more for a comparable education is really doing you a disservice. </p>
<p>If you carry out your plan then the degree that matters most when you apply for your first job is your final degree – in your case the Master’s Degree. Assuming that you do very well at whichever college you attend your graduate school chances are likely to be “equal”. So the unknown (based on your criteria) is whether you may change your plans along the way, and choose to do something other than CS, or decide to postpone graduate school. Your number (1) consideration (is it really in no particular order?) is “cost”. None of your criteria touch upon location, or social fit, or courses outside of the technical sphere, or opportunities for non-academic activities, etc. Is that really the case?</p>
<p>It would depend on your financial situation. If you were financially secure (i.e., 62k a year is affordable for you), then I’d suggest you go to CMU, since their CS/engineering/robotics are top notch. However, UMichigan is also an excellent school, and you’d do well there too, I’m sure. It depends on how much money would be a factor for you.</p>
<p>Also, think about which school you’d like better in terms of fit, student body, academics, etc. </p>