Apologies if I missed this upthread, but I want to take a different angle. Aside from $$ (which I agree is a crucial element), there is another aspect of Cornell engineering to consider. As @Yonkers6thBoro mentions, Cornell engineering is exceptional…and it is exceptionally intense. It is a full on long hard slog for 4 years. Now, if you love your subject, and thrive on intense work, it is great. You will have a degree that will open many many doors.
BUT if you just like your subject, if you are pursuing it b/c it seems like a good career move that will give you well paid jobs that you will enjoy I can see why a student would pick BU.
I know that my Cornell gradschoolkid, who is loving Cornell, and who TAs for classes the OP will take, is very glad that they had a different undergraduate uni.
Being able to handle something is different from wanting to!
We can agree to disagree on whether Cornell is “that” intense, but I think we can agree that Cornell is a meaningfully more intense experience than many other schools
Cornell has secondary admission to major based on GPA, but the thresholds are all in the 2.x range. Probably most students in the lower 2.x range are likely to decide that engineering to “too hard” for them and self-weed-out (at any school).
When the required GPA is 2.0-2.5 it could hardly be called “secondary admission”.
I can hardly think of many cases where it became an impediment.
Unlike say UCB where I think about 50% of aspiring cs majors at L&S don’t make it.
Also, the required courses are not “specially” hard to weed kids out.