Choosing a college
dspeyer: From my experience, Cornell Alumni have a much greater presence in high-end cs industry than any of those other schools.  It's probably worth trying to squeeze more money out of them (what do you have to lose by trying?).Tufts has a generally good reputation, though not particularly technical.  Free is good and Boston is good.  You might investigate if you can take high-level CS courses at MIT or Harvard with a Tufts enrollment (I think it's possible, but you'll want to know details).  It's certainly possible to join the MIT culture without actually enrolling there.Yale receives a certain degree of contempt in technical circles.  It's probably possible to get a solid education there, but certainly don't expect the name to open doors.