May 1 is quickly approaching and I’ve narrowed it down to these two schools – UT-Austin and UMD for a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering. I got into the honors college at UMD and got offered a full-ride scholarship. Currently, UT-Austin is offering me no money, and I did not get into their honors program (don’t quite know why but not my problem now). If I pay full tuition at UT for all four years, I would still graduate debt free, but it would be nicer to have money left after college than to have my 529 plan basically zeroed out. I know I like Austin more than College Park, but aside from that I can’t really make up my mind between the two schools. Is UT-Austin’s Chemical Engineering program that much better than UMD’s? Is it 4-years of full tuition better? Is having money left over, or enjoying my time in college more important?
I just need some honest opinions and some guidance, especially considering that since I live in Maryland, anyone who I ask about UMD around here is going to have a very skewed opinion of the university. Thank you for your input!