they worth every penny

This year we are lucky to get a freshmen from CMU to do Co-op in our team. In 3 month (summer Co-op), he fixed over 30 bugs, including a couple of bugs in the kernel (we do our OS by ourself). The efficiency is more than double of the average Co-op. He did the job as if he already know the system. It is actually his first Co-op job.

CMU computer science is the top CS program in USA. I would say, they worth every penny of 100+ K salary.

On the other hand, I believe he can also do well in state universities. But by studying in CMU, he can probably do better. Since he has a chance to learn from genius level profession and whole bunch of very talented computer scientists that he may work with later on.