<p>I've been accepted to all 3, and am having trouble making my decision. Cost wise, RPI is the cheapest for me (about $17k a year), but Northeastern is a close 2nd with my family paying about $20k a year. I'm OOS for UIUC and have not received any financial aid information from them, but I don't expect much (at least in terms of merit aid). My dad is really pushing for me to go to UIUC if we can afford it, because it's supposed to have a far better Comp Sci program than the other two. The only problem is that I don't really want to live out in the mid-west. I currently live in CT and lived in WI for 2 years and wasn't really a fan of it. Plus, I don't really like being so far away from home.</p>
<p>In terms of money and quality, which school gives me the best bang for my buck?</p>
<p>these three schools and compsci have been discussed before, so you can do a search for one or two of the schools on this forum and pull up more detail. The general consensus on CC this year seems to be that, all things being equal, get the compsci or computer engineering degree wherever it is cheapest. that is not to say that one or two factors, like poor accessibility for the disabled, cannot play a game-changing role, just that it doesn’t really matter where your degree comes from because the region and industry set the starting salary. You’ll be hired based on your demonstrated teamwork, skill set, familiarity with this or that technology, internship, rather than the alma mater. I don’t have a horse in this race, but the things I hear about Northeastern are very promising, but if you want to go to RIT then you could try finagling a couple thousand more out of them.</p>