University of Maryland College Park or Virginia Tech?

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well amid these times of hardship. As you all know, May 1st is fast approaching and I would be more than happy to receive your opinion on my decision. I have narrowed down my choices to UMDCP and Virginia Tech. Based on your experiences, which one would you recommend taking into account the following factors:

A major detail in my book is cost and after all scholarships and grants and the federal loans, they both total to $19k. Therefore, they both cost around the same amount. I am also interested in Computer Science and would like to specialize in cybersecurity.

I live in Northern Virginia and within 25 miles of UMD. A big factor for the university is its close proximity to the DC area and the fact that I can find more internships and possibly ones that I can do during the academic year rather than VT where I’ll be restricted to doing them mostly over the summer and breaks. Specifically looking at CS and Cyber, and not engineering overall, I have heard better things from UMD’s CS department and that they are ranked 3rd in cybersecurity education whereas in VT I would be taking a cyber minor only.

I have gotten into UMD’s Honors College but not in VT’s Honors College. I have also visited both campuses and am in love with both. The urban setting of UMD is nice but I really don’t have any preference in terms of the campuses.

Please let me know if you need any more details from me. Thanks in advance!

Do you have direct admission to CS at UMD? If not, see https://undergrad.cs.umd.edu/internal-transfer-students about entry to major.

For VT, first year engineering students’ procedure to declare a major is given at https://enge.vt.edu/content/dam/enge_vt_edu/undergraduate/coe_com2.pdf .

I have gotten into General Engineering for VT and admitted to Computer Science: Cybersecurity for UMD.