<p>I'm currently a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Out of High School I made the decision to only apply to UNH because I thought it would be the most financially sound decision. However, as far as state schools go UNH is actually quite expensive, upwards of $24,000 a year in-state. I've now decided that in order to pay for college I'm going to join the air force to have it paid for me. I figure if I'm going to have my college paid for me then I might as well go to a more prestigious school than UNH, so I'm trying to choose between schools to which to transfer.</p>
<p>I'm currently trying to earn a bachelor's degree in Information Technology, but not many schools seem to offer this specific major, so when I transfer I may change to Computer Science or Computer Engineering (I'd prefer to do more networking/hardware work rather than programming, so I feel that I'm more suited for Computer Engineering). Unfortunately I waited quite a while before deciding to transfer and have missed the transfer application deadline for many schools in which I was interested (most specifically Carnegie Mellon, though I'm not sure I would have been accepted there anyway). I've narrowed my choices down to Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Georgia Institute of Technology.</p>
<p>I went to a high school of about 4,000 students and UNH has about 30,000 students, so I'm used to both small and large groups and have no preference to either one. I live in southern New Hampshire, so I'm closest to WPI, slightly farther from UMass Amherst, RPI would be a bit of a drive, and I'd probably need to take a plane to Georgia Tech.
From what I've been able to determine, these schools are pretty comparable but vary quite a bit in terms of rankings (both national and in the computer science/engineering departments).</p>
<p>All of these rankings are from U. S. News, and are as follows:
National:
WPI - #62
RPI - #50
UMass Amherst - #94
Georgia Tech - #36
Computer Science:
WPI - #91
RPI - #47
UMass Amherst - #20
Georgia Tech - #10
Computer Engineering:
WPI - N/A, but listed as #95 for Best Engineering Schools
RPI - N/A, but listed as #37 for Best Engineering Schools
UMass Amherst - N/A, but listed as #52 for Best Engineering Schools
Georgia Tech - #6, and listed as #4 for Best Engineering Schools</p>
<p>So judging solely on the ratings provided by U.S. News, Georgia Tech seems to be the highest regarded school in all of the categories. When checking all of the colleges on College Board they're all pretty similar, with acceptance rates varying from 40% for RPI to 66% for UMass Amherst and for the most part their students have decent SAT scores (between RPI, WPI, and Georgia Tech there is a focus on higher SAT math scores, and they all only vary by about 30 points. UMass Amherst is about 100 points below them for math scores).</p>
<p>So basically I'd like to get people's opinions on which school seems best for me. Will it really make a difference to employers deciding to hire a graduate from one of these different schools? I've heard technology firms in Boston consider WPI to be a good school and often hire graduates from there, but would a degree from Georgia Tech be just as good in Boston or would a degree from WPI be regarded just as highly somewhere in, say, the West Coast? Also I'd like to know which school would provide me with the best education, as I've read Georgia Tech is more research based while WPI is more lecture-oriented. Thanks, and if anyone knows of other schools I should consider who still have open transfer deadlines, feel free to let me know.</p>