As a soon-to-be graduating high school senior in the U.S., I'm going to be facing a tough decision in a few months: which college should I go to? Will it be worth it to go to Cornell or Stanford or Carnegie Mellon (assuming I get in, of course) to get a big-name computer science degree, internships, and connections with professors, while taking on massive debt; or am I better off going to SUNY Binghamton (probably the best state school in New York) and still get a pretty decent education while saving myself from over a hundred-thousand dollars worth of debt? Yes, I know questions like this has been asked before (namely here and here), but please bear with me because I haven't found an answer that fits my particular situation.

I've read the two linked questions above in depth, but they haven't answered what I want to know:


Yes, I understand that going to a big-name college can potentially get me connected with some wonderful professors and leaders in the field, but on average, how does that translate financially? I mean, will good connections pay off so well that I'd be easily getting rid of over a hundred-thousand dollars of debt? 
And how does the fact that I can get a fifth-years master's degree at Carnegie Mellon play into the equation? Will the higher degree right off the bat help me get a better-paying job just out of college, or will the extra year only put me further into debt? Not having to go to graduate school to get a comparable degree will, of course, be a great financial relief, but will getting it so early give it any greater worth?
And if I go to SUNY Binghamton, which is far lesser-known than what I've considered (although if there are any alumni out there who want to share their experience, I would greatly appreciate it), would I be closing off doors that would potentially offset my short-term economic gain with long-term benefits? Essentially, is the short-term benefit overweighed by a potential long-term loss?


The answers to these questions all tie in to my final college decision (again, permitting I make it to these schools), so I hope that asking the skilled and knowledgeable people of the field will help me make the right choice (if there is such a thing).



Also, please note: I'm in a rather peculiar situation where I can't pay for college without taking out a bunch of loans, but will be getting little to no financial aid (likely federal or otherwise). I don't want to elaborate on this too much (so take it at face value), but this is mainly the reason I'm asking the question.



Thanks a lot! It means a lot to me.



Edit: Thanks to everyone for your wonderful responses! All thought-out and well-written, and I wish I had the time to write comments on all of them. Hopefully, I'll be able to when I get home from school and work later tonight...



Edit 2:
Wow! Unbelievable that I've gotten this many helpful responses in such a short amount of time! I haven't had the time to properly sit down and respond to many of these, but I really appreciate the effort, and I will do so tomorrow. Big thanks to everyone who posted!



Edit 3:
For those who are interested, I got into CMU, Cornell, and Binghamton, and decided on Binghamton. CMU and Cornell gave me no financial aid whatsoever, while Binghamton, being a state school costs less than $20,000 a year including room and board. When I got the admission letters, the decision was hard, but after visiting Binghamton and realizing just how good of a school it is (state schools are severely underrated in the United States; it's a terrible problem—for what it's worth, it turns out that Binghamton was even more selective than many of the private schools I applied to, not that that inherently means much, but just as a metric), I couldn't pass up. Besides, I visited on a terrible, rainy day, and was still impressed, so I knew it was the one. ;)

Doing some actual financial analysis, I realized I would never be able to pay off the $60,000 a year required for CMU or Cornell, only making choosing Binghamton feel even better.

While this question is specific to my case, I hope this can help someone else in my position.



Edit 4: I've recently been made aware that students in a similar position have been stumbling across this question, and I wanted to give a short update. I'm incredibly happy here at Binghamton, and if I had to go through the college process all over again, I wouldn't have chosen any other school. I think most students tend to be happy regardless of where they go, but for me, Binghamton has been a great experience.

What I want to tell students is this: I know that it's hard to judge schools without paying attention to their names and reputations — I doubt Carnegie Mellon will ever be considered a bad school for studying Computer Science — but don't ignore schools just because you've never heard of them! Don't be afraid to make practical choices. I know that Binghamton isn't a world-famous university, but from what I've seen, our curriculum is more rigorous, and lays down a better foundation than many top schools that I've heard of, and for much cheaper. We focus a lot on getting students internship, job, and research opportunities, and we have very strong connections to companies like Microsoft, Bloomberg, IBM, Lockheed Martin, and several others. We're a very practical school — we might not be famous, but if you come here, you're going to get an excellent foundation for your career, and almost certainly an internship or a job. Plus, we're small enough that students can get to know their professors well (I have several friends who are first-name basis with their professors), which certainly helps if they're interested in doing research, which we do a lot of at Binghamton.

I didn't know any of this when I chose Binghamton, and it's one of those things you can only learn about a school once you go there — details like this won't be stressed on brochures and magazines, and you learn about it through experience. So, what I want to say is, don't go picking schools solely on whether you've heard of them or not, and consider state schools. The better ones, like Binghamton, are very good choices.

Take this with a grain of salt: of course, if you're motivated, skilled, and hard-working, and if you push yourself to succeed, where you go doesn't matter as much because you'll be noticed wherever you are. I got very lucky with my internships and job opportunities, and my experiences have definitely been flukes, but if you are constantly improving your skills and apply yourself, you can further yourself much more than your school will ever be able to. 

To tell you about my background, I went to a small, private liberal arts school and work at Google. So it's possible to land a good job without going too far into debt. But if I could make my college decision again, I would have gone with a big-name tech school.

Big name schools offer attention

It is difficult to land a good internship at Microsoft or Google if you went to school at some random school. While at big-name campuses Microsoft and Google recruiters will be begging for the best and the brightest. That isn't to say you can't get an internship/job right out of school at a top-tier company. It just means luck and nailing your interviews play a larger role. (Mostly because the interviewer isn't making any assumptions about your background.)

Big name schools offer a better curriculum

This is probably far more important to consider. People will tell you that you will learn the same things at less-reputable college. They are all wrong.

Bigger name schools teach a lot more rigor and cover a lot more of the esoteric corner cases. (For example, requiring that students learn to implement their own hash table rather than just reading a paragraph in the book.) This makes a huge difference if you want to have a career where you are truly innovating.

Anybody can write code, few people have the skills to change the world through software.

If you are good, money doesn't matter

I took out gobs and gobs of student loans. More than I would like to admit. But if you are working for Microsoft or Google, getting a 15-30,000 annual bonus isn't out of the ordinary. And if you are really, really good the sky literally is the limit.

Re: Masters degree

You shouldn't waste your time on this. If you studied hard from a top-tier undergraduate program, then you won't need it. (And the opportunity cost for the extra year or two isn't worth it.) However, if you are like me and didn't have a rigorous undergrad program I would highly recommend this option, as it will surely patch any holes in your undergraduate education. Even better, a lot of times your employer will pick up the tab depending on the program.

Bottom line

The bottom line is that you need to have an idea of what you are after. If you want to be a tech God in 10 years, then you should go to the best school you can get into. Internships and great jobs will pay for your loans.

But if you aren't sure about that sort of lifestyle, you can play it more conservatively. This won't limit you in any way, but it will require a lot more effort on your part to land a great job after you graduate. 
