Good job so far, @RLabsD!
From what I’ve seen, most “Chance Me” posts are from borderline applicants reaching for the stars or just trying to find a college who’ll accept them “as is”. You don’t have that issue; yours seems to be winnowing down your list.
What I really like is that you’ve already established a fine Benchmark school: NC State. Your final choice(s) will come down to Feel and Risk Mitigation. Where do you see yourself succeeding? Who am I going to collaborate with on projects and hang with? Am I a crowd Joiner or a crowd Starter? What is my life going to be like outside of the classroom or lab? What will I do between semesters? Where can I realistically complete my degree in four years? What do I want (besides a job) out of college? Where do I want to establish a career? How much are my co-signing parents willing to financially risk? What can go wrong? What happens if something does go wrong?
Frankly, the only reason I foresee that might delay acceptance at your benchmark is that you have a lot of other irons in the fire and they’ll have a lot of other applicants with fewer irons.
So, why NOT NC State? What does it not offer that other colleges do? What do you want more of, and less of? How does another college beat it? Are you and your parents willing to foot the bill for multiple applications and campus visits? I certainly hope that you don’t accept a college that you haven’t visited, since Feel and Visualization is so important to Risk Mitigation, and the cost of a mistake is so high.
Here’s what separates an Engineer and a Tech: An Engineer visualizes the End and works back to the Present. A Tech works from the present toward an End. It’s like the best putters on the PGA Tour lining up a putt from behind the hole back to the ball first, then looking from the ball to the hole, then double-checking. Where those lines intersect determines the aim and the pace of the putt.
Looking at your End, your first job out of college is most likely to be with a regional Utility, a large corporation (such as a multi-national), a government contractor performing testing as opposed to full lifecycle type development, or academia interfacing with the above. Those opportunities exist most everywhere on your list. States with talent compete to retain that talent from moving to places with a shortage of talent. What’s the advantage of moving far away? Being that there is a demand for your talent, why can’t the faraway move wait until you are more established? Have you noticed that starting salaries and real estate costs run parallel; that areas which pay higher salaries have much higher real estate costs? If you are saddled with college debt, will you have the flexibility of choosing your favorite opportunities?
@GoRedhead had some good alternative ideas. Focus on answering the questions above, talk to your parents, prioritize your preferences, and find the school which best reflects your choices and Feels right. It’s a Value judgement and you can’t come close to Knowing without visiting campuses, eating the food, meeting professors (sitting in on a couple classes would be great), talking to random students (other than the tour guides), etc. Would you buy a car based solely on the label without a test drive? Well, college is like buying a new luxury car every year for the next four or more years, and to your parents, it’s a fancy car that they’ll will drive.
A final question: How’s the alumni engagement? I’d say most alumni smile when reflecting back since they see college as the best time of their lives. The older they are, the bigger the smile. But are they speaking academically, socially, or about the football/basketball teams’ success? A few will be “meh”, very few will be “don’t go there”. Ask why they feel that way. Ask, if they could do it again, what they would do differently (or tell their kids to do)?
Good luck! If you can Feel It and See It, you can Do It!