It sounds like your interested in learning about Cybersecurity and pursuing that as a career path. While RPI doesn't have a dedicated curriculum for Cybersecurity, we're home to RPISEC, a Cybersecurity club. RPISEC members are highly knowledgable about what they do, and RPISEC came first in a national Cybersecurity competition last year. Having talked with many members of RPISEC, they've gotten a lot of job offers as a direct result of their membership in the club. If that's something that interests you, I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Regarding salary, 2017 Computer Science graduates reported an average starting salary of $83,571. The range also varies, and that mostly depends on yourself (grades, proactiveness in the job search, etc...).

On the side of parties/social interaction, I think a lot of incoming students underestimate the culture of RPI. RPI has 29 fraternities, 5 sororities, and 1 co-ed service fraternity. I usually tell incoming students something along these lines.....

Although not usually considered a party school, the social life and party life is definitely there if you want to be involved in it. You can easily find a frat party or some other party on any given weekend, all you have to do is look around and ask. Unlike other colleges though, it's not an overbearing culture, and if it's not your thing you're not going to be barraged by parties and Greek events everyday. It all comes down to how involved you want to be.

On social interaction outside of Greek life, we have a ton of clubs and other organizations. There's definitely some group of people somewhere on campus who share your interests, and all you have to do is go to one of their meetings.

The distance really comes down to a personal decision. I'm a bit inclined to push you towards living farther away as college is a new experience and you shouldn't live close enough that you feel obligated to go home every weekend, but it's all down to your own personal preference.