final college decision.. help

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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<p>so it's time to make my final decisions on college. it has basically come down to the following three colleges: maryland, uconn, and penn state (wait listed at wisconsin, deferred from michigan but expecting a rejection).
i applied to the engineering schools of these colleges and got accepted to uconns and penn states, but not at maryland. maryland placed me into the college of letters and science. to transfer into their engineering school i need to have a 3.0 gpa and complete a few simple courses.
now onto money.. i am in state for uconn plus they gave me a little scholarship and grant, making a total cost of about $18,000 per year (tution+room and board). this way i would leave school with no debt. maryland is about $36,000 and penn state, $37,000. my mom said that even though cost is a factor, she would be fine with having $80,000 in debt if i choose psu or umd if i really love them more than uconn, and i would pay the majority of it back.
now onto my intended field of study: engineering. the reason why i would love to be at penn state of maryland is because of their engineering programs. they are both very highly ranked programs with great job placement. i loved penn states campus even though the size of the student body is huge, and i have not visited maryland but its supposed to be amazing, and it seems like a really great school.
i just want to hear random people's opinions on the matter because i'm having a really tough time deciding whether maryland/penn states engineering programs are worth the extra 80,000 in debt. </p>

<p>also a factor in this could be grad school. does anyone know if engineers really need to go to grad school? I've heard that most do not, but if your employer wants you to, they will pay for grad school. (If i need to go to grad school, i'm basically going to uconn cause of the price).
Also, if i do somehow ending getting off the wait list at wisconsin, or getting into michigan, i will most likely go to either of those no matter the price. my mom says uconn, penn state, and umd are all comparable but those 2 are way above the other 3.</p>

<p>and if anyone has experience on the greek life at those three schools who would care to comment it would be greatly appreciated. thanks for reading and for responding.</p>

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<p>You don’t want to be 80k in debt when you graduate college</p>

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<p>avoid all debt possible for undergrad. (PERIOD!)</p>

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<p>400 views and only 2 responses?</p>

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<p>If I were you I would choose psu… a friend who has gotten average grades got a job offers right before graduation offering about 90,000 a year. Psu engineering students receive many job offers. Also it is an amazing school for greek life… my dad went there and always tells me of the elaborate homes for greek life. Also it has incredible school spirit! Hope this helped!</p>

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<p>Those are all fabulous schools and you can’t go wrong with either. I would choose which ever one is the cheapest.</p>

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<p>"avoid all debt possible for undergrad. (PERIOD!) "</p>

<p>Talk about short sighted…</p>

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<p>Maryland and PSU are both excellent, but not worth $80,000 more than UConn if you come from a middle income family. I would go for UConn.</p>

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<p>My D loved Penn State and Maryland as well. I don’t think you can go wrong either way.</p>

<p>Penn State is more of a weed-out program as they do not allow you to declare your major until junior year (mechanical, electrical etc…) and your options for concentration will be based on the number of students currently in the program and your current GPA.</p>