@TopTier, I do not doubt the biases firms have towards big names for schools. The key question remains as to when is the best time to spend your limited amount of dollars. I do not consider Duke to give the OP’s child a big advantage if he/she is were to get a degree in CS from either UMD or Duke. To me the 200K can be utilized in a much better fashion for post-graduate studies or setting up a business.
I will give my credentials as an example. I did an undergrad in Mech Engg from one of the original (5) IITs, followed by an MBA from HBS (my batchmate from IIT, Nitin Nohria is the Dean there now). I was a Baker Scholar, first job at McKinsey, and so on. So I have seen the world and have some idea what it takes to succeed!
@TerpDad888, what I would suggest is as follows. Take the super offer from UMD, hopefully your ward does well, gets a few years of experience under his belt and then applies for grad studies. If he is enjoying and successful at what he is doing, there is no need for a different career path. If not, use that 200k+ to apply to one of the M7 schools (Stanford, HBS, Wharton, Columbia, Chicago, Kellogg and MIT) for an MBA. I am advocating the same for my D2 (who is a Freshman at GTech for ChemE), my D1 is at Pitt Med.
Adding a link for some numbers regarding the costs for an MBA at any of these M7 schools.
http://poetsandquants.com/2015/01/05/the-m7-the-super-elite-business-schools-by-the-numbers/