<p>What college is best bang for your buck? I'm not sure what major I want yet, so kind of looking for best overall school. US News says UMass #94 and UVM #82 are better than UNH #101 and URI #160. </p>
<p>The one other school I'm looking at is Providence College but I don't really want to stay in Rhode Island.</p>
<p>UMass seems bigger and has more majors than Vermont, so that is a plus because I can figure out what I want to study and the major will probably be there. On the other hand Vermont's reputation is a little bit better.</p>
<p>According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings UMass is #39 in North America, #64 in the world, and the other 3 don’t rank in the top 400:</p>
<p>Lol. I guess your point was that anyone can put out crazy rankings! That guide says UMass is better than Vanderbilt and Rice! Egads!</p>
<p>Sticking with the rankings everyone uses, is the money worth it at UMass versus URI? I dont plan to go to school forever to be a doctor or professor or anything, just want to get a decent kind of job.</p>
<p>But at same time id rather be inmursed with other smarter kids which says UMass and Vermont are better. Question is if the extra cost is worth it?</p>
<p>The Times Higher Ed stuff is actually very well respected - they just look at different criteria than USN+WR.</p>
<p>Is it worth the money for UMass or Vermont? It’s about $60K extra for UMass and $90K extra for Vermont, unless you pick a major URI doesn’t offer.</p>
<p>Only you can answer if it is worth the money. Every large school has plenty of smart kids though, they are not that hard to find.</p>
<p>If UMass or UVM have a major that URI doesn’t offer, there is a program where you can attend the other state’s flagship for a tuition that is in between instate and OOS.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you live in RI then URI is gonna be cheaper than either OOS option.</p>
<p>I’m not really sure what major i want so it makes it hard. While URI is cheaper does it make more sense go to a much higher ranked school? Umass and Vermont are both ranked a lot higher than it. But is the extra 15k a year worth it? </p>
<p>Also I keep reading hear that support for all of our schools is going lower. So confusing!</p>
<p>Don’t know what your grades etc are, but if they’re good, don’t overlook the possibility of getting a merit scholarship that makes the gap smaller. When my son was applying to schools 3 years ago, UNH, UVM, and UConn offered a little scholarship money. BTW, URI requires submission of app by Dec 1 for scholarship consideration.</p>