Thy name is college decisions.

Okay so I've got it down to 4, basically... Columbia, CMU, Maryland, and Rutgers.

Columbia and CMU are both about 50,000 a year. Maryland is... 30,000 or 20,000 I think, and Rutgers is free.

Columbia, obviously, is an Ivy. For CMU I got into Computer Science and CMU is definitely among the top for CS... but I have to know I really want to do CS because you can't really pursue anything else but CS with a CS degree. I also can't say I'm too hot on Columbia's core... lots of really long, really old texts on the syllabus.

Maryland and Rutgers, there's probably not much real difference aside from Maryland is not Rutgers. Rutgers is just... too close to home. State school, you know? Sure it'd be nice to be able to do my laundry at home, but far outweighing that, I really want to get away, go somewhere new. Rutgers is literally 15 minutes away. Obvious advantage of Rutgers, though, is that it's free. I think I have a bit more freedom in terms of majors and classes at Maryland, though, although Rutgers probably has a good amount of freedom, too. Most likely getting a load of AP credit from both.

And then in terms of getting into graduate school, do I want to be in the top of my class at a state school or hanging around the middle in a place like Columbia or CMU?

Argh, just so many factors... >-<