What's in a good engineering school?

<p>Yesterday I asked in the BU subforum which was better, Boston University or University of Buffalo. The response was that Boston was much better. So what exactly makes one school so much better for engineering? Do you learn anything different, or is it just the teachers' enthusiasm towards teaching which in turn generally makes you learn things for fully? If I could basically get a free ride at one, would I be losing out by not going to the better, but much more expensive one?</p>