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nasa is history, private spaceflight is the way. nasa is static and bureaucratic, whereas private industry is dynamic and efficient. Look at SpaceShipOne... a complete launch system designed, built, tested, and flown for $20 million dollars. That's the cost of a paper study at nasa. Another way to look at it is that each shuttle launch costs $1 billion, which says nothing of the immense development costs.
I'd consider which schools have good networking/connections, that way you're connected in general to the real business world. In this aspect, MIT/Stanford/Princeton beat everyone else. georgia tech and michigan are also good at both aero and business, but less so... also they're teeming with people, but if that's your thing then hey.
The question boils down to whether or not you want to aerospace engineer as a career or as a means to gain influence in the business world. The industry is rapidly shaping up for the latter. If you arent interested in money, you might prefer to go to an either more "pure," theoretical, research-oriented program like Caltech, or a very career-oriented school like embry riddle.
Also, the schools that are ranked "without phD" are in general worse schools, with the exception of the military academies, but those are really a separate category of schools.
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