@panda20 In my opinion, no. CMU is Tier 1 (ex. UC, MIT), Michigan’s Tier 1.5 (ex. Cornell, UT Austin), Maryland is Tier 2 (OSU, UWash). If 80k is a lot of debt for you Maryland is a clear choice. I value starting salary a lot more highly, but it’s certainly debatable what kind of impact it has on mid career.