While I think there is truth to what Erin’s Dad said about ABET accreditation and job pay in the abstract and to some degree in reality (and St. Louis is a great market for engineers usually), I still think when you take into account the overall sharper education you get at the stronger schools UIUC and GT win out. Perhaps most importantly when talking about the first 10-15 years of your career, the much more extensive engineering alumni network of both UIUC and GT have to be given serious consideration, and so I think some debt could be worth it. Now if you are talking more than about $30-35K total, I would hesitate. But generally speaking, with engineering salaries being what they are currently and the overall job market for engineers being decent even in most recessions, that level of debt should be manageable. By definition it adds risk, and only you can decide how willing you are to take on that risk. I would also add that if you are firmly set on staying in the St. Louis area for your career, that would add bonus points to SLU. Together with the no debt factor, that would probably make SLU my choice if I were you, but again only if you are 90+% fixed on living in St. Louis after graduation.