<p>Hi, can anyone help me decide between these three?</p>
<p>UMD (University of Maryland)- (Spring admission, will have to take classes at community college or do Freshman Connection)- instate, low cost, close to home, (#14 on USNews list of best comp. sci. colleges).</p>
<p>VT (Virginia Tech)- (Got into the general ed., will have to transfer to comp sci)- low cost, 4 hours away, low (USNews ranking: #44)</p>
<p>UIUC (University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign)- (admitted directly into engineering-computer science) - high cost (probably no aid), very high USNews ranking for Comp. Sci.
(USNews ranking: #5)</p>
<p>Your thoughts and considerations are much appreciated.</p>
<p>Come on guys, no one has any advice?</p>
<p>UMD.</p>
<p>Happykid has a number of friends who did either Freshman Connection, or a semester at the community college. They all are in their regular classes now at UMC and they are doing well. There isn’t any good reason to go to UIUC and pay the out-of-state costs when you have UMD as an option. The difference in the rankings is not truly significant enough to make a difference.</p>
<p>Sit down with your parents and run the numbers. Talk with them about what the difference in costs between these institutions really means for your family. Here is a good calculator that will help you: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Advanced Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>I would have to say UMD as well even though I don’t like the surrounding area!! Know that 9 out of 10 times I do root for UIUC - BIG TEN due to its well respected academics especially in Computer Sciences & Engineering. However, as a resident of Illinois, I have witnessed many top Illinois kids (New Trier High School for instance) leaving UIUC for other Big Ten schools (Wisconsin and Ohio State in particular) due to the recent tuition hike. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/1124505-osu-vs-uiuc.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/1124505-osu-vs-uiuc.html</a></p>
<p>Best of Luck to you! :)</p>
<p>Thanks guys, I have heard that UIUC gives very little financial aid… But how does UMD stack up to VT or UIUC in terms of computer science merit.</p>
<p>Example: If I want to get a position at google, which college would be a better path for that. </p>
<p>I know that UMD has a lot of government job options.</p>
<p>It is OK to call the Career Center at both VT and UMD and ask about their recruiting calendars and job placement. The people in those offices would be able to tell you where their graduates end up.</p>
<p>Bump. Want some more opinions.</p>
<p>Since this isn’t tooo old…</p>
<p>To give an argument for UIUC, from what I hear UIUC definitely is a bigger name in CS and the name alone may get your some recognition. Yahoo has an office on their campus - and a lot of big name companies are supposed to hire pretty aggressively there, including Google. (Bill Gates at one point mentioned that Microsoft hires more grads from U of I than any other university). I also think there would be better research opportunities there. So if you really want to get that job at Google and do as much as you can for it, UIUC is probably the better bet. That’s not to say you can’t get a job at google coming from UMD, though. In fact I think someone with a pretty prominent position at Google is a UMD grad…</p>
<p>But anyway, it’s up to you to decide if UIUC is worth the extra money.</p>