UIUC M.Ed vs. George Washington MA

[ayokay]

Got accepted into and need help deciding between:

M.Ed in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership (concentration in Global Studies in Education) at UIUC and MA in in Education and Human Development (concentration in Organizational Leadership and Learning) at George Washington

I'm currently working aboard. Both of these are online programs but the degrees will be from their grad schools and will not be different from one earned on-campus. The curriculum for the MA at GW is much more applicable for what I do now and what I want to do in the future. The big draw is that the UIUC program costs about 1/3 of GW's! I intend to go back to the US in the future, work in education (non-teaching)/non-profits. I don't know how both of these schools are perceived in the US. I just want to know if it is worth it to pay more for a curriculum I like better. 

Any input would be much appreciated! 

[MastersHoping]

Without doubt, UIUC. 

I live in the D.C. area and attend a university equally expensive as GW. The debt I have is debilitating. Trust me, it's not worth it. And GW isn't even that good where it's worth going into tens of thousands of dollars of debt for. If you want to work in Education in the future, I do not see any reason why UIUC wouldn't fully prepare you for that, and besides, you might end up working in a slightly different area of education. Just to tell you how much it's not worth it, I wake up every morning around 7:00 AM for work and work several hours, head to classes, then work again at night. I also sign up for paid studies at my universities to earn some extra petty cash. Guess what? 100% of it is going toward my loans, which, because we're graduate students, are unsubsidized and accumulating interest every day, even in school. 100% of the money I earn that doesn't go toward food or cost of living goes to the debt, and I've barely made a scratch in it. 

In terms of prestige and quality, UIUC is highly well regarded internationally. GW is not quite so well known. I'm not so sure about education in particular though. The biggest plus for both of them is that they're both online. I'm personally a big fan of online education. 

Edited May 12, 2016 by MastersHoping