My son is a freshman in the software engineering program at RIT so I can speak to that school’s program a bit as well as a few of the others on your list. He applied and was accepted to UDel (honors), Pitt (honors), UMd (scholars), WPI, and Drexel. He has several friends who attend Lehigh - it’s about a half hour from us and our high school sends at least a kid or two each year. Son was a band kid and all his friends at Lehigh are as well.
I think you are correct about the culture at Lehigh - there is a big drinking/partying scene and even kids who were the straightest straight arrows in high school seem to get sucked into it because there isn’t much else to do there. That said, they do have a marching band that is a ton of fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. For my son’s friends, band is their main social circle, though they did end up joining things like the music frat as well. But even the band has a strong drinking culture - the juniors and seniors are told they are expected to buy the alcohol for the freshman and sophomores etc. A kid who isn’t a partier will either become one (which is what my son’s friends seem to have done to various degrees) or they will have a hard time fitting in.
My son liked UDel fine but there was nothing special about it that stood out. Drexel seemed to have a good program but they were pretty rigid about the coop schedule and they gave him basically no merit money (9K a year doesn’t go very far when the cost of attendance is >70K a year) so they were ruled out on cost (he also wasn’t a huge fan of Philly.) He liked WPI – they have a project-based approach that is very unique – but felt it was a bit small and it was pricey even after the merit they gave him. He had also heard reports of intro to comp sci classes being huge (>150 ppl) and hard to get into which seemed surprising for such a small school. UMd has a great comp sci program and he was flattered to be accepted but we never visited - ultimately he thought it would be too huge and he had cheaper options that he liked better.
So ultimately for him it came down to Pitt vs RIT and that was a hard choice. He really liked Pittsburgh as a city and liked what Pitt’s honors program had to offer, but their comp sci department is relatively new (was recently spun off as its own department) and didn’t quite seem to have its act together yet as far as being able to answer specific curriculum questions. The info sessions were disorganized etc. There was no formal coop or internship program the way Drexel/RIT/Northeastern have one – you could do an internship or not, up to you. Students at Pitt seemed much more diverse with their interests which makes sense - the school has all majors, it isn’t tailored to tech the way RIT is and there are athletes and frat bros and all the sorts of groups you’d find at any college. But that left my son wondering where exactly he would fit and how he would find his people.
RIT, on the other hand, felt like home to him from the second he set foot on campus. The overall vibe of the school is very geeky/nerdy but it’s an interesting mix - there’s a lot of comp sci and engineering majors but also a lot of art/photography/film majors so you get the techy geeks and and the art geeks – so it’s a diverse mix of geekiness if that makes any sense. There is very little party scene to speak of - there are a few frats but they are way off at the edge of campus and my son doesn’t know anyone in them or who has even gone there for a party. Pretty much all of the social activities revolve around campus clubs for the most part, and there are clubs for just about any interest you could want and everyone is really welcoming to new members. They have things like a live action Humans vs Zombies club where for a week in the fall and a week in the spring, kids go around shooting each other with nerf guns on campus between classes etc. They build and race baja cars. Someone motorized a sofa and they drive it around campus once in a while. In other words, lots of nerdy fun. There’s also a very big deaf and hard of hearing population on campus which appealed to my son as he has had hearing loss since birth but always been in a mainstream school where he got bullied so hard for his hearing aids that he refused to wear them. He really likes the way RIT feels so inclusive - there are sign language interpreters at every event etc. He doesn’t sign, but he just finds it such a welcoming culture. And the school as a whole embraces it - at hockey games, the whole school has chants that they sign in ASL as they say them - I think that’s pretty amazing.
There is a pep band (no marching band) - they play at all the hockey games, basketball games etc. I don’t think there’s any mandatory number of practices or games you need to attend - it seems pretty laid back, and from watching them at the hockey games, they look like they have a blast. The school is also investing in performing arts - they don’t have any performing arts majors, but they are really beefing up their performings arts programs and they offer a performing arts scholarship that kids can apply for as incoming freshman - it isn’t much money but it does get you special opportunities to take trips into Rochester to see the local symphony orchestra or musicals that come into town etc. It’s a really nice program and if your son plays any sort of instrument, I highly recommend applying - you submit a short “audition” video but everyone seems to pretty much get approved – I don’t think you have to be super talented or anything. RIT has a lot of performing arts opportunities on campus as well - there’s a game symphony orchestra (that plays video game music exclusively), a regular orchestra, many dance and theatre groups, and even their own recording studio/record label.
As far as the curriculum goes, we were very impressed on our campus visits - they have a longstanding coop program and are well connected with employers. They have several different computing majors - not just comp sci, but software engineering, web and mobile computing, human centered computing, new media design, lots of interesting specialties like that. There’s also a computing exploration track so if you don’t know what specialization you want, you can try out everything and pick at the end of your freshman year without being behind for graduation. And all of the programs are thoughtfully planned out and integrated with coops. And while my son hasn’t done a coop yet, it does seem like the school offers a pretty good help for finding them – and from what I see on the parents facebook group, most kids who come out of the computer majors with their 3 coops usually end up getting hired quickly (often by one of their coop companies) for good money so I do believe the coop program is a worthwhile thing. As a freshman, my son has had no issues registering for the classes he needs and all of his classes have been small - his intro comp sci classes have had 30-40 people in them. His linear algebra class has 35 people in it. And all these small classes are taught by profressors, not grad students. (Contrast that to WPI, a school that is 1/3 the size, where the intro classes were 5x as large and had recitation sections taught by grad students.) He has really liked all his professors and classes and has done very well in his courses. So I’ve been really impressed with the academics so far.
There are a few things that he doesn’t love. Food is meh. Dorms are pretty sad (rooms are small!) but most kids only have to dorm for a year unless you have certain scholarships. (Also, they are supposedly renovating them starting this summer.) The location itself isn’t great - Rochester is a cool city but RIT is out in a suburb, almost in an industrial park type area. There’s not much you can walk to from campus but that basically means they make their own fun on campus. Campus is made up of a lot of 1960s orangey brick buildings - it’s definitely not the prettiest architecture you’ll ever see. And the gender ratio isn’t great - his comp sci classes have maybe 5 women max in them. Though I’m guessing comp sci may be like that everywhere. And the winter in Rochester is pretty gray and gloomy – though there has been surprisingly little snow and it hasn’t been nearly as cold as he was expecting. He might just be getting lucky this year.
Anyhow, looking back, my son is positive that he made the right choice with RIT and has no regrets at all. As a non-partier geeky computer kid with a musical bent, I’m not sure there’s a better college he could have chosen. Sorry this got so very long-winded but I hope this info helps. Good luck to your son on his search!