<p>As far a choosing between Cornell and CMU, I would personally go with Cornell, although I agree that these are 2 highly regarded schools and there are many good reasons for choosing either one over the other. I think at this point, it all boils down to personal feel. Both are intimidatingly tough, yet highly respected engineering schools. As mentioned above, Cornell has a larger undergraduate student body, but in a smaller town. Cornell also tends to be less international. Whether these things are important depend on your personality - whether you want to be with lots of other students in a smaller town (some people really like that), or whether you would prefer to be with less students in a more urban environment (some people would rather have that). I would also point out that the majority of people who intend to do ECE will not complete the major. So you have to factor in just how sure you really are about ECE and if you do find out you'd rather do something else, what other things the school has to offer. </p>
<p>Now, if it were really up to me, I'd take Duke and the 50k. But again, that really depends on your 'price-sensitivity'. If you come from a very rich family, then 50k probably doesn't matter much. However, to me, 50k is a good chunk of change.</p>