Cal Poly vs Colorado SOM vs Univ of Utah for materials engineering

Congratulations to your son on the excellent acceptances he has received so far! As others have mentioned, the California publics give very little aid to out-of-state students. Same with Michigan. So, in all likelihood, you’re looking at the sticker price for those schools.

Has your son been accepted to Utah’s honors program? It has an excellent reputation and might mitigate some of the “commuter” aspects of the univesity, and living on-campus would also aid with that as well.

You may be interested in this thread to get a sense of how others have felt about going to college in their hometown: Going to college in one's own hometown?