Hold up, this was making sense until you said $20,000 a year was relatively close. That kinda opened my eyes. Definitely not worth it to make a little extra money at your very first job to be in a worse environment that is costing you $80,000 more in the long run.
I’m not too worried about starting salary as that ins’t a good indication of the money you will make later in your career and your overall success. Also you said GA Tech was ranked much much higher when its only 20 spots higher out of the thousands of schools that offer engineering across the nation.
Would you still consider Maryland, CMU, and UMich in the same tier? That was my main question.