I have to agree that unless he were accepted to MIT or the like that GT is one of the top opportunities in the country for engineering. Being in the Midwest you have a lot of excellent engineering schools to consider. If you consider UIUC also consider Purdue. They are similar on paper but have a different feel when visiting and they also will rank highly in nearly every engineering discipline. Most of the BIG10 engineering schools will be matches as opposed to safeties as they are state schools and are more competitive for OOS students. Good luck.