International - What should I pick for CS majors - Purdue, Ohio State, Penn State or NCSU

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I am international student from India (CBSE Course) and got selected in following colleges.
Need help to decide between following colleges for CS :

Purdue
Ohio State
Penn State - Univ. Park
NCSU
University of Cincinnati - 10K Scholarship

Appreciate if you can help me shortlist.

2

Are finances a factor?

3

Tuition fee up to 30K /year is manageable

4

Then Penn State’s out, because OOS tuition is $40k-$45k per year.

5

US News shows OOS as $31K

http://premium.usnews.com/best-colleges/penn-state-6965

6

Or you could go to the actual source, where the school itself says 47k for tuition, room, board, etc. http://admissions.psu.edu/costs-aid/tuition/

7

All of these schools are great. I would attend the cheapest one you can get. Academically, all of these schools are near the same level. I recommend NCSU. You’ll love North Carolina. Plus you’ll get to watch the ECU Pirates kick NCSU’s butt in football this season!

8

But what is your budget for EVERYTHING ELSE?

Yes, OOS tuition for Penn State is $31,000, but the COA is $47,000. Where is that $16k a year coming from?

9

Thanks for all your inputs. I want to keep Total cost ~ 50K.

Need clarification - From rankings I could see that Purdue is very well rated, but then I do not know why it has high % of admission rate. Is the goal to get as many students as possible and then tighten the academic results to see that 15-20% drop off after 1st year ?

10

The first four are similar academically so I’d pick the one with the lowest tuition cost, which is NCSU. Or Ohio State.

11

Thanks for all your inputs.

12

@sheengurkha to answer your question about Purdue, that’s because Americans don’t usually pick their college based primarily on the US News rankings. So you might have less people applying there because they prefer to go somewhere else for whatever reasons (cost, location, type of school, etc.)
For example Rose-Hulman has long been ranked the #1 undergraduate engineering program in the country by US News, and yet it has a 60% acceptance rate. Why? Well, not everyone wants to go to a tiny college in the middle of Indiana.

13

Thanks a lot @insanedreamer