Accepted for CS. Money at Amherst and RIT is the same. Lowell is less. I intend to pursue a Masters so this school would not be my last. Any opinions on what is best for undergrad and then as a jumping off spot for Grad School. I really like AI and Robotics. I’m not to concerned about the geographic locations, it would be the educational experience that would matter most.
RIT is very well known for AI and Robotics, so that stands out to me. Are Amherst / RIT affordable? Will there be loans at either if you attend?
Why are you planning to go to grad school after? Are you looking to go into academia, be a professor, work in research, or in the industry?
Have been seeing lots of stories lately connecting UMass Lowell and robotics. Boston is getting to be a big player in robotics research and it seems like they are using UMass Lowell students a lot in that research.
A few stories locally are not equatable to a larger trend, nor is UMass Lowell a big force in driving robotics research in Boston.
If you look at the link above and look in the US for AI and Robotics subjects from 2000 to 2017, here is how some schools stack up by research output:
In Thread:
UMass Amherst: 13
RIT: 59
UMass Lowell: 109
Boston Schools:
MIT: 5
Harvard: 14
Northeastern: 20
Tufts: 53
Boston Universty: 66
Boston College: 90
If you look exclusively at strict Robotics and HCI, Lowell is still only at 87. Even looking at only the past 5 years, they come in at 82nd. It may be a growing department, but I think the other two schools are in a league of their own comparatively for someone looking to do research.
I noted RIT because their robotics specialty and reputation in the field is very good, even if they too are still not as much of a research powerhouse as UMass Amherst. Their size and undergraduate focus are also possible benefits to the OP. I think either of those two would serve them well, and at a higher level than Lowell can.