Post #41 Your family would have to take 50K of debt for you to go to a school other than UMass? This is really a foolish idea to go anywhere else. Certainly not worth your family taking that debt. Go to UMass which is a top school for CS. Enjoy Amherst and enjoy Boston. You’ll have plenty of other grad school options if you wish.
^ I agree!
“I’m obviously bias’d towards Purdue. I’ve 2 degrees from there and have two nieces that currently attend and have been in touch with them since Mitch Daniels became President and have friends who are faculty there. Mitch’s plan is to cut fat, increase fundraising and not just blindly raise tuition because everyone else does it and the market doesn’t care (i.e. they will pay it). I’d be surprised if it raises anytime soon.”
My D will be graduating with a degree in ChemE from Purdue University in May. She had a job lined up in September. Purdue is a school that offers a lot of opportunities but they will not hand feed them to you. They let you know they are there but you have to go out and get them. My D has done a 5 term coop which definitely helped defray the cost of her education and 4 semesters of research. I have nothing but praise for Purdue and have been impressed by it’s President Mitch Daniels for holding down costs while increasing the size of the university.
Having said that, I know many friends of my D that have come from other less well known schools and have done equally well. I think if you work hard, have the aptitude, and seek out the opportunities the universities have to offer you can be successful anywhere. Purdue is perhaps more STEM centric than the other schools you are looking at. Indiana has two flagships and Indiana University is where many of the non stem majors are considered stronger. Good luck.
Also, it sounds like OP’s father would have to get in debt to afford Purdue and in CS UMass is better recognized. (Purdue has the upper-hand for Engineering).
^Yes UMass is highly regarded in CS. Why would OP’s family take on 50k ADDITIONAL debt for a school that is not better in CS? @Ivvcsf CS is a very performance based field. Any slight benefit of name won’t make a difference anyway. Why put a family into great debt. That is just crazy.
According to this link, I see UT, PU, and UW all mentioned before (didn’t even see) UMass. Before you take CC word on it, do a little research. I’ve my bias, and they have theirs.
Also, these rankings tend to look at Grad Schools, not Undergrad. But, you would think that a strong Grad Program would help the Undergrad, especially if one is interested in going onto Grad in the long run.
I also suspect someone will find another ranking that does show UMASS, I just grabbed the first on the Google list and didn’t go any further.
^ not a legit ranking for us colleges.
All in all, what matters to grad students (research output) isn’t what matters to undergrads (class size, lab and professor access, support services, variety of course choices, depth of advanced classes).
People who speak about UMass CS know what they’re talking about - it’s very highly regarded in the industry and certainly not worth dropping for 50k extra, through debt.
All of these schools are in the same tier for CS. Choose based on your preferences beyond academics in addition to financials.
^ This is the answer then. I trust @PengsPhils opinion.
What about grad school for CS, @PengsPhils ? Worth it?
There is no difference really that would be worth considering in this decision. Sounds like UMass is the best option, as @MYOS1634 pointed out on the first page 
@PengsPhils Yes but OP is also hoping to go to grad school for CS and someone said grad school wasn’t worth it for CS. Your opinion on the value of grad school for CS?
I’d also agree, not worth it for most. If OP goes into AI, it could be, but is very unneeded for a software engineering job.
@BrianBoiler UW Madison is after UMass in the link you sent!
According to that link it is:
UT Austin
Purdue
UMass
UW Madison
And Purdue would be around 10k more than UMass(considering UMass increases its tuition by 2k every year and Purdue doesn’t )
@MYOS1634 @BrianBoiler @gearmom
Purdue is the best school for cs and engineering in this list. And the point a poster made about switching majors is very good, in that case UT Austin would be my recommendation as it has strong programs engineering, science, humanities etc… I’d also reconsider getting a masters and possibly take the money you were going to use for that and see if you can make Purdue or UT work. Both have strong reputations, nationally and internationally in CS.
@pat07ek Are you saying that Purdue is 10k per year more than UMass? What is your cost per year for Purdue? You had estimated 190k for four years or 47.5 K per year is that accurate? Over four years with the usual 3.6% (about 1.6-1.7K) increase from UMass (which I think will slow down) the difference between the schools (assuming Purdue stays the same) would be 30K total if your difference starting is 10 per year. So for four years, worst case scenario, UMass adds ~10 K to the current price COA. For undergraduate student in the US, the total max amount of debt recommended is 27K. There is no way I would recommend 30 K (or 20K) more debt for a school that is a PEER of UMass for CS. The US is not so sensitive to tiny ranking differences. No one cares if you are #24 versus #25. Now if the difference starts at 10k TOTAL over four years then you could choose either school since the total costs (ASSUMING Purdue freezes COA and assuming UMass rise 3.6%) are the same. BUT if your total cost difference between UMass and Purdue means 30K (or even 20K) more debt would be a complete waste of money for your family IMHO.
@PengsPhils Is correct that these colleges are the same tier. Put down the ranking charts if you are going to be burdening your family with 20 to 30 to 50 k more debt for nothing.
@theloniusmonk Is Purdue worth 20-30K more debt to this family?
@prezbucky How much additional debt would you recommend OP’s family taking for one of the schools other than UMass. 20k, 30k or 50k? This could be in addition to the debt they take on to pay for the UMass baseline.
We have done the ROI analysis based on salaries published in IEEE. There will be no significant financial benefit to this. UMass grads work along side MIT grads, RPI grads everyday in Boston and no one cares about the school. It is what you can do that matters.
I was talking about academic reputation. Wisconsin, Texas and Purdue have better all-around academics than UMass. ROI is a poor measure for judging a school’s worth due to issues like major choice and jobs (STEM and business tend to earn more, so schools with heavy majors in those areas will tend to report higher grad salaries – this is due in large part to student choice), as well as regional differences in standard of living (the same job offers different salaries in different places). That is why i think the Forbes ranking is not worth the paper and pixels. Quality of education and experience should be the top variables.
The job a kid has largely relates to the choice and drive of the student, not the quality of the school (when comparing peers at least).
If the OP sticks with CS, UMass is a fine choice. If he changes his mind, he’s probably better off at one of the other three, which offer more top-notch programs.
Cost is another consideration – UMass is probably good enough to avoid paying a lot more for anywhere but maybe HYPSM and their ilk… though even then it’s questionable.
@prezbucky The ROI we looked at from IEEE was self reporting salaries of CS professionals from various schools. Any salary bump due to school name was gone by the ten year mark.
This student needs to know whether or not he should burden his family with an additional 20, 30, 50K of debt. That is the bottom line. It will make no difference IMHO for CS to go to one of these schools other than UMass. Who knows how much total debt and hardship this family will take on to send this student to school here. Is it worth the extra debt to go to the other schools? This is money the family does not have.
If OP switches majors from CS to engineering after the first or second year then OP will very likely be looking an additional year or two of school. That would be an expensive switch.