Hi all,

I am a junior college student who just went through an application season for computer science internship positions at numerous companies. I am lucky to say it was successful; All but one company gave me an offer. I have already accepted a position at a large tech hub in my state and I'm very happy with it. However, this morning I was given an internship offer from the NSA and it looks very promising. I know they work on a lot of data science and digital signal processing projects and that alone is a big deal to me. I'm unsure of what to do. Even though the job I have already accepted is an internship, it seems really unprofessional to back out from the position after you have accepted. Any advice or word on this would be really appreciated!

For those who have done the NSA's computer science internship program or know about it, here are some simple questions I have;

My current accepted internship position has a 5k signing bonus and a $25/hr wage. This is the highest any internship I've seen pay. How does the NSA compare to this?

The cost of living in the surrounding area for my accepted position is also relatively low for any given metro area in the US. How are the costs of living in Fort Meade and Maryland in general? Is it hard to find a good space out there?

Lastly, does the NSA hire interns from the CSIP program?