First, the financials:
While CS co-op’s do fare well at NEU in CS, I would not expect 35k to be covered by co-ops - you still have to pay living expenses most of the time (though some companies not in Boston do pay for those), so the net gain from co-op for a CS major will vary based on that. Using R&B as NEU has it on the sticker price, that’s 7K per co-op for living expenses. Assuming a $20 an hour co-op (average, if not higher, for CS), that will net 13K before taxes. If we conservatively apply taxes, let’s say that’s 11K.
Theoretically, 3 CS co-ops would make up almost all of the difference, but what if your daughter switches to a major where one only breaks even on co-op? For that reason, I think that you should still expect to pay some of the price difference and consider extra as a nice surprise.
With a conservative estimate of co-op gains, I would consider the difference to be about 10-20K for financial purposes.
All that said, as a current NEU CS student who looked into both schools mentioned in the title, NEU is an absolutely amazing program that really does an amazing job of teaching CS. I’m actually a TA for the first class here - we use a functional programming language specifically designed for teaching, and it goes a long way. If you have any specific questions about the program, I would love to answer any questions!
Co-op, of course works amazingly well for CS - I have friends working at Intuit, Apple, Facebook, the JPL (Engineering Major), and tons of other less heard of companies that are still very solid tech companies. I’ve heard of hourly pay as high as $35 an hour, but I’m sure there’s some selection bias there in who shares what. I can say that I would safely say the average CS pay for co-op is over $20 an hour, as mentioned before.
It should be noted that while NEU’s program is amazing, RIT does have it’s own co-op program too that is very respectable, and in CS it won’t be incredibly uncommon to utilize it. Still, it will be much more a part of the culture at NEU.
RIT I was very happy to apply to, but I always had it as a safety while NEU was one of my top options. It was a true safety though - one I would have actually been happy attending. Their program has a bit of a bigger strength for robotics, but for Software Development NEU is hard to beat.
Personally, I always say that while financials are important, if you can realistically afford a larger price fort a better school, it is worth it. So, where would the extra 10-20k (using the conservative estimate above) be coming from? Would that be loans or out of pocket? Would it be eating into another child’s college fund?
If it isn’t too much of a stretch or harming another child’s financial ability, I say go for NEU - the difference is there and NEU has an absolutely amazing CS program from my experience.
Other things to consider: She is a fan of the co-op program I assume based on the OP, but is she a fan of Boston / city life? What about the campuses comparatively. Fit is important - if she feels that RIT fits her better, the difference in the CS programs may be balanced out by that, making RIT the better option as the cheaper one.
Good luck with the decision!