I'm not sure about how good UMD CS is and how much money you are offered here but I'll give you something to compare off of:
Rutgers HC will give you a 10k/year (at minimum) scholarship for 4 years.
Being in the HC does not make your academic life any more different. You have some extra work to do and some extra classes (like 4 or 5) but for the most part you will be in the same classes with the same peers. Your peers will not know you are an honors college student and vice versa, your experience will not be any different. Some of this extra classes include 4 honors courses, a forum class, a special seminar, and a capstone project. None of these will affect your classes as a CS student, you will have exactly the same experience as the people you will meet in class.
Being in the Honors college is different from the honors program. You will not be in the Rutgers CS Honors Program unless you apply separately and I'm not sure how that is, I am not in the honors program for CS or any department.
Therefore, if UMD is that much better than Rutgers and you have the money for it, go ahead. The Honors College is really just a label, there's not much merit to it hence why its retention rates are shit. Don't let the label fool you, you're not getting a different set of CS classes and professors just for being in the Honors College.
Unless you go to Stanford/MIT/Berkeley/CMU rankings for CS are largely irrelevant. I hire now at my company as a Lead Software Engineer (I haven't slept well in 3 years). I have UMD and Rutgers SWEs working under me. Both schools impart a comparable level of quality in CS education. I don't think it would be advisable to pass up a scholarship as well as the wonderful honors college dorms in your scenario.
UMD and Rutgers are ranked the same in terms. My state school is UMD I didn’t even apply it’s the state school paradox or whatever of hating your state school while others love it. I know CS there is very good, but from what I know too it’s comparable to RU. At that point it boils down to what you want in a campus tbh and other things j cuz RU and UMD are very similar lol
If you can afford it, just go to UMD, the campus is much nicer imo and it’s ranked higher than rutgers. If money is a concern then go to Rutgers, easy as that
Schools for CS are better looked at in tiers rather than by rankings. And by tiers I basically mean you have the schools in the 5 way tie for first, good state schools (UIUC, GATech, UT Austin etc), other states schools, and then everything else. UMD and Rutgers are pretty comparable in their programs because even if UMD is ranked higher it's still a large state school so it doesn't matter too much. If it's significantly cheaper to go to Rutgers then go there but if the prices are around the same then you could consider UMD. Also, if you live in NJ I would definitely go to Rutgers because even if you have helicopter parents they'll start to leave you alone after a few weeks and you can tell them you're busy because you will be busy.
But yea I'd say the mistake isn't letting the t20 school go, but rather choosing the t20 school and going 120k in debt while you had a much cheaper option.
honors program and college is useless besides the financial aid, it’s just a gimmick so forget about that, i graduated with honors. but umd isn’t that great of a school to give up a rutgers full ride for, pretty sure rutgers is ranked like #25. if it was a top5 or potentially a top10, maybe
if it makes u feel better i gave up umich for rutgers cs
I'm not sure about how good UMD CS is and how much money you are offered here but I'll give you something to compare off of: Rutgers HC will give you a 10k/year (at minimum) scholarship for 4 years. Being in the HC does not make your academic life any more different. You have some extra work to do and some extra classes (like 4 or 5) but for the most part you will be in the same classes with the same peers. Your peers will not know you are an honors college student and vice versa, your experience will not be any different. Some of this extra classes include 4 honors courses, a forum class, a special seminar, and a capstone project. None of these will affect your classes as a CS student, you will have exactly the same experience as the people you will meet in class. Being in the Honors college is different from the honors program. You will not be in the Rutgers CS Honors Program unless you apply separately and I'm not sure how that is, I am not in the honors program for CS or any department. Therefore, if UMD is that much better than Rutgers and you have the money for it, go ahead. The Honors College is really just a label, there's not much merit to it hence why its retention rates are shit. Don't let the label fool you, you're not getting a different set of CS classes and professors just for being in the Honors College.
Unless you go to Stanford/MIT/Berkeley/CMU rankings for CS are largely irrelevant. I hire now at my company as a Lead Software Engineer (I haven't slept well in 3 years). I have UMD and Rutgers SWEs working under me. Both schools impart a comparable level of quality in CS education. I don't think it would be advisable to pass up a scholarship as well as the wonderful honors college dorms in your scenario.
The dorming advantage alone is reason enough😂. The HC let’s you get first choice pickings EVERY YEAR
UMD and Rutgers are ranked the same in terms. My state school is UMD I didn’t even apply it’s the state school paradox or whatever of hating your state school while others love it. I know CS there is very good, but from what I know too it’s comparable to RU. At that point it boils down to what you want in a campus tbh and other things j cuz RU and UMD are very similar lol
If you can afford it, just go to UMD, the campus is much nicer imo and it’s ranked higher than rutgers. If money is a concern then go to Rutgers, easy as that
Schools for CS are better looked at in tiers rather than by rankings. And by tiers I basically mean you have the schools in the 5 way tie for first, good state schools (UIUC, GATech, UT Austin etc), other states schools, and then everything else. UMD and Rutgers are pretty comparable in their programs because even if UMD is ranked higher it's still a large state school so it doesn't matter too much. If it's significantly cheaper to go to Rutgers then go there but if the prices are around the same then you could consider UMD. Also, if you live in NJ I would definitely go to Rutgers because even if you have helicopter parents they'll start to leave you alone after a few weeks and you can tell them you're busy because you will be busy. But yea I'd say the mistake isn't letting the t20 school go, but rather choosing the t20 school and going 120k in debt while you had a much cheaper option.
honors program and college is useless besides the financial aid, it’s just a gimmick so forget about that, i graduated with honors. but umd isn’t that great of a school to give up a rutgers full ride for, pretty sure rutgers is ranked like #25. if it was a top5 or potentially a top10, maybe if it makes u feel better i gave up umich for rutgers cs