Hello,
It is a pretty stressful time for me as I am deciding what college to go to for undergrad. My top 3 choices are Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Washington-Seattle. I plan on majoring in electrical engineering. What is the best bet? I am paranoid about big schools but I also am obsessed with rankings for some reason.
Are all of these equally affordable for your family? If not, choose the one that is the most affordable. All of them are perfectly fine institutions.
Here is a nice calculator to help you run the numbers: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/awardletteradvanced.phtml
^ CC will be able to offer more advice once you answer whether or not they’re all affordable (aka no insane levels of loans)
Its JMHO but forget about rankings an think about what part of the country you’d like to live in. You have a very geographically diverse list. I’m assuming you can afford them if you’d already been accepted so I’m taking that out of the equation.
Also, are you admitted to your major at UW Seattle? If you are pre-engineering at UW but got into your major at another school, pick one where you got into the major.
If you are going to be an engineer, this is a good time to start thinking like an engineer: Rankings are irrelevant for this situation so don’t consider them. Quality and ROI are roughly the same for all three schools in engineering, so cost of attendance is highly relevant. Your concern about larger schools is relevant and should be considered.