Accepted into honors and engineering at both schools. Net price about the same due to scholarships. Rankings for honors lean to USC which has the #1 public college honors college. But rankings for engineering lean to UMD.
Leaning towards aerospace engineering.
Opinions?
Go with whichever engineering program you prefer. The rankings of their honors colleges (whatever that even means) are pretty much irrelevant. I didn’t even know they were ranked in some way and would not factor that in if admitting student to graduate programs.
The Gamecock’s honor college is excellent. I’ll not list the benefits, you can find them online…
One issue to consider, however, is that USC doesn’t offer a BS in Aerospace. You would need to earn a BS in Mechanical and then a minor in Aerospace.
Good Luck!
If you decide you definitely want aerospace, go with UMD. The program is very highly regarded. I would also assume there is a benefit to being near D.C. since the defense industry is a big source of jobs for AE graduates.