<p>I like the idea about the t shirts.</p>
<p>I haven’t read all the replies in this thread, but this is a great thread, and all of us at home will read it this evening! </p>
<p>My son is torn between UIUC (Urbana-Champaign) and UMass Amherst, the state school. There is no comparison in the ranking and reputation. UIUC is ranked 38 in USNews and 16th in the Washington Monthly list; whereas UMass ranks 96th and 89th in the two lists respectively. My son is interested in engineering, in which UIUC ranks 5th and UMass ranks around 60th.</p>
<p>Now let’s consider the practical aspects. </p>
<p>Transportation: UMass is just 68 miles away by Rt 2 and all four of us can jump into the van be there in 1.5 hours. For UIUC, we will have to plan in advance, and we are more of a ad-hoc family to put it euphemistically. I am dreading the trips to the airport eight times a year minimally and arranging the flights to go each time, not to to mention the cost.</p>
<p>Emergency/sickness: Hopefully these conditions will not happen, but we can’t discount them totally. I remember getting jaundice in my second year at IIT Madras and recuperating at my uncle’s house. In these cases, having some reliable family or friends and ease of transportation is vital.</p>
<p>Financial pay-off: Of course, the goal of education is more than just securing a high-paying job, but for professional programs like engineering, it is an important consideration. Because of its higher rank and reputation, we would expect UIUC graduates to do better, but hard data is difficult to get, especially on the long-term benefits. For convenience, let’s label MIT/Stanford top-tier schools; UIUC/RPI as second-tier schools; and UMass as a third-tier school. I examined the salary data for the position called ‘Senior Software Engineer’ for these three tiers. For the first tier, it is $104K - $106K; for the second, it is $94.5K; for the third tier, it is $93.7K.</p>
<p>I am using the title ‘Sr Software Engineer’ as a proxy for all type of engineering and technical positions, but you can see the difference between the second-tier and third-tier is negligible over the long-term, and definitely not enough to justify the $100K extra one will pay over four years. This analysis also agrees with our common-sense intuition that it makes sense top-dollar for a top-tier school, but the </p>
<p>So from a convenience and cost-benefit point of view, if your state-school is halfway decent (as UMass definitely is), it would be wise to rein in your emotions, and go there (unless your last name is Gates 
and do the best with the resources available. After your undergrad, you will be likely debt-free, and use any additional funds for grad-school. Agree or disagree ?</p>