[gwbas1c]

If it were me I'd go to Z, and then apply to MIT for grad school. Your undergrad school doesn't matter as much as some people like to think it does.

Why? Cost is a factor, but there are other things to consider:

Will your professors actually be interested in teaching undergrad, or is it something they do because they have to? For undergrad, favor the school where the professors will be more interested in you. (Unless you're planning on getting involved in graduate-level projects as an undergrad.)

What kind of reputation do undergrad graduates of the schools have? My first internship was very close to MIT, and I didn't hear very nice things about their BS graduates. (But that was one datapoint.)

A few other things:

UMass Amherst has an awesome CS program. It's ranked close to MIT and costs a lot less. It's also about 90 minutes from Boston.

I learned so much more about tech outside of school than inside school. Yes, you can meet some truly awesome people at MIT. You can also meet truly awesome people anywhere, it all comes down to your ability to judge others' character and motivations.

[Throwawayaerlei]

> UMass Amherst has an awesome CS program. It's ranked close to MIT and costs a lot less.

Maybe it's program is awesome, but per it's own page on the subject it ranks #31st (https://www.cics.umass.edu/news/computer-science-undergradua...). Note there are plenty of ties in the US News and World Report system, so for example Stanford, UC Berkeley, CMU and MIT are in a tie for #1 which is correct.