<p>For engineering schools, you really need to use the five year grad rate to account for co-ops and heavier course load and I think GT is more than acceptable in that sense. I can understand how GT is better known and would be a good choice. However, given what Arkansas is giving you, I would bet you would get just as good of an education if not better. As for connections, all it would take is one professor at Arkansas who calls a friend or former student working in Austin or silicon valley to get you started. Going to Arkansas isn’t going to be as cut and dried as looking up who recruits at Georgia Tech. But I’m pretty sure there’s plenty of faculty at Arkansas who know a person or two out of the state to help students out. </p>
<p>Going to Arkansas will feel riskier until you actually meet the people who will be helping you out later. And if you don’t seek those people out or use the opportunities as they present themselves, it will be riskier. Tech is the easier choice and the debt would be just within the boundaries of reasonable. Like others have said, see if you can get any more money out of tech but also really look into the faculty and departments at Arkansas. Good luck!</p>