<p>Hi,
I’m an RHIT alum and teach at a top 10 research school in Engineering. </p>
<p>I’d say that for me Rose was the best choice. Smaller school let me get highly involved in many many activities in a leadership role. Plus the technical education was outstanding <em>until</em> the senior year when it slid quite a bit. But the teaching was almost always good (one or two exceptions) and people were there to teach you rather than do research. I learned a LOT because the teaching was so good. In my field the senior year was a lot less than it could and should have been. </p>
<p>Would I make the same choice (I too debated between UIUC and Rose)? Yes. But money worked out for me fairly well (parents helped as much as they could) and I got lucky and found a job for a short while that let me live very poorly but pay off the loans in 6 months. And I just had a blast with non-academic things. Not partying, but learning to lead and follow and work with others. Very useful and very powerful for me (a fairly uber geek even today). UIUC might have been just as good, but I’d have been more of a number I think, and for where I was at the time, I think that would have gone poorly…</p>