<p>classicrockerdad: Thank you so much for the feedback. I guess I was assuming 5 years because most of the kids I talked to from each of these schools indicated that, with the coop, they generally end up going 4.5 - 5 years.</p>
<p>Purdue is 17K every year as long as I keep my grades above 3.0. I feel confident that I can do that. My fit issue with them is that, I was not impressed with their Computer Science Program at all. I’d like to do CS vs. Electrical/Computer Engineering (ECE) because I am not interested in Electrical Engineering at all, though PU’s ECE program was very impressive. Do you have any experience with their CS graduates (i.e. not ECE) or know any recruiters that might? Maybe I will start a separate thread asking for opinions about that. Maybe the PU CS people I met with that day weren’t the ones that normally talk about the program. The counselor I talked to made the program seem very cookie cutter – everyone takes pretty much the same courses. The student that gave the tour said she was graduating in 2 months and had no job and no prospects! Was I there on a bad day?</p>
<p>GT’s CS presentation blew me away. They have dozens of choices in which to specialize depending on your specific interest. From what I hear, you are right about being pushed harder at GT and PU => more capabilities => more opportunities => better salary…but how much better? Is it worth 100-160K? If I were near the top of my class (if not the top) at UL would I have a decent chance to go to those top companies (assuming they don’t recruit there) and open those doors myself?</p>
<p>I’m going to try to call the career centers from each school later today to see if they can give me some more info.</p>
<p>Are there any other comments about differences in opportunities or salary among my choices?</p>