Have you considered Clarkson? Some students consider it too rural/remote and cold, but I really liked it. (Note - 'm Mechanical Engineer and don’t know a lot about their CS program).
My kid’s college counselor suggested Clarkson for CS ( too remote for her, but it has a good rep.) Also, have you looked at Champlain? Top notch CS programs and I think they would like his stats.
Do you mean- CWRU?
Look at the CDS for each school to see how his stats compare to the incoming class- that will give you an idea of his chances for reaches as well as where he might get merit.
Lehigh University is another school with a strong engineering program that is similarly ranked to CWRU and Northeastern, but Lehigh is a bit more flexible on gpa, and is also working to improve its diversity. Also, unlike many engineering schools, it is easy to switch to almost any major if he changes his mind.
Is your son absolutely sure that he wants a tech school environment? It might be worthwhile to ask him the question “If for some reason you changed your mind about majoring in computer science, what do you think you might major in instead?”
If the answer is something that is not tech-oriented, a tech school might not be the best choice.
My son majored in computer science, and he didn’t change his mind. But if he had, he would have wanted a liberal arts major – probably something like sociology or philosophy. (He graduated from college with a philosophy minor – he was that interested in the subject.) He would not have wanted to go into a different tech field. For kids like him, tech schools are not a good fit. He was better off in a university environment.
Your son’s high English score makes me believe the humanities are where his true aptitude lies. His math is comparatively low for CS. I agree with @Marian that he might consider a liberal arts college. A male, particularly a URM, may have a better shot at acceptance and possibly qualify for merit money.
As far as the tech school slant there is a pretty easy avenue to explore.
Go do a visit and tour at both University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology - one will feel more right than the other and then explore from there.
My 100% computer nerd made a couple of silly mistakes on the math SAT every time he took while getting an 800 on the CR every time. You can make several mistakes on the CR and still get an 800 but every mistake in math cost him 20 to 30 points. My kiddo is a voracious and extremely fast reader, but he despised English classes and loathed writing papers. I’m not worried about the disparity in scores.
I think you should ask the GC to address the family situation. And your kid needs good grades in the fall.
If liberal arts colleges and other smaller colleges are of interest, you may find this listing of CS course offerings to be useful when selecting among them:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19190340/#Comment_19190340
Don’t over-correct for party schools. Completely respect the OP’s kid desire to stay away from a four year drunken brawl… but not every dorm lives up to a college’s overall reputation. It’s worth doing some digging on a school which has the overall “feel” your son is looking for to find out what the non-partiers do in their spare time. If there are a lot of them- and they have their own fun, activities, EC’s, events, etc. it’s less of a concern than a rural college where there is literally nothing to do on a weekend besides drink.
Look at Clarkson University in Potsdam NY as a possible safety, or at least a solid match. A small tech school in the middle of nowhere (if you have a car, you can get to Ottawa or Montreal within a few hours). I also second others’ recommendations of Stevens Institute of Technology and Rose-Hulman (but that will be a serious trip from wherever you are).
The SAT and ACT math tests measure basic mathematical concepts which can trip up certain students. They get cocky and breeze past questions too fast or they overthink the simple ones. My son consistently had the highest scores in his math classes and scored a 5 on the AP Calc BC exam. The math score on his ACT was lower than the verbal parts and his SAT Math II subject test was only 730 or something.
Advice that we received too late was to take the Math II subject test before beginning the calculus sequence because a good calculus teacher will get their little mathy brains primed for more creative and abstract mathematical reasoning.
Regarding the ‘party school’ label: it just takes one group on a campus to tag the entire school with that label. OP and his son should look at the culture of the school for engineering and science students. If the party crowd is the greek crowd and the school has a robust non-greek culture, the school as a whole will carry a party label but may actually be a wonderful fit.
“His math is comparatively low for CS. I agree with @Marian that he might consider a liberal arts college. A male, particularly a URM, may have a better shot at acceptance and possibly qualify for merit money.”
I disagree with this. While his math is lower, it is respectable. I think that from a school’s perspective, URM’s who can do math well are harder to find than liberal arts candidates. I agree that this student would have a leg up at an LAC, but I think he would have more of a leg up in engineering. I think you will find that URM’s in top Universities are more concentrated in Arts and Sciences, after freshman year and the biggest barrier is math.
@thshadow - I’m going to look into Ill Tech. Thanks.
I listed Purdue as a reach based on Naviance data from my son’s HS. According to Naviance, the students from his HS that were accepted by Purdue seemed to have similar stats to ones from accepted by RPI and WPI. Wondering what other people have found?
We actually toured Umass Amherst. I agree it has a very good reputation. For a CS major, I was given the impression based on the general admissions presentation that it would be more of reach for my son than a match due to GPA sensitivity. We are on the fence about S applying. I know Umass re-weights GPA based on their own system but I think he would still end up close to his existing weighted HS GPA -still far short of 3.8 -3.9 range the admissions presenter was talking about for CS majors. If he were over 3.7 for GPA I would feel more comfortable calling it match for him. Maybe I’m being too conservative. Naviance at his HS btw supports your assessment of match/safety but that data does not separate admission into engineering and CS from the other less competitive schools.
Not sure where you are at but sometimes looking at the state school can be worth it even if they have a party reputation. He might be able to look at/be accepted into the honors college if offered. That can be a much smaller community with like minded students even in a larger “party” school.
Agreeing with @livinginLA . Not every student at a party school is partying. There are floors/dorms/LLCs that are quieter than others. Off-campus there will be neighborhoods and complexes that are quieter than others. These are things you can find out by asking current students. And generally nobody is partying in the library 
@goingnutsmom - I definitely meant arrangement. Yes- CWRU. Forgot the R. Can’t sell him on LAC. It’s like he’s allergic to the words.
@colorado_mom and cameo 43-We actually toured Clarkson and he liked it but our concern was the CS department was too small. I remember reading somewhere that some of the more popular engineering majors are recruited heavily at jobs fairs there. I could be off base, but I was unsure if CS recruiters would make the trek all the up to Pottsdam for such a small batch when they could go to larger more centrally located schools in NY state and strike gold. If anyone out there has direct experience with the subject I would welcome the input.
@10s4life -Per Naviance, Lehigh for whatever reason appears very tough to get into from his HS. Granted there was not a ton of data, but WPI, RPI, and Northeaster looked easier to get into from my son’s HS.
@swampdraggin - We actually drove through UR after we toured RIT. This was before my son had gotten his SAT scores back and I had any way of knowing that he had any kind of chance there. My wife really wanted my son to visit UR because her brother went there but I was resisting because I thought it was pointless to visit a school where S had no chance. I am kicking myself now that we didn’t get out of the car.
@mathmom- Ditto my S reads like a speed demon. He likes to write but English papers are not his favorite either.
I have spoken to GC about the family situation. She will address it. Agreed on the grades in the fall.
FWIW, me and my daughter went to Rochester. We mainly wanted to see U of R, and figured we’d look at RIT while we were there. It turned out she loved RIT and hated U of R. (She definitely has strong opinions. ) Possibly like your son, she hates any school that’s at all like an LAC.
We are headed to Rochester next week to look at both. @theshadow: similar thing happened to us in VT last week. Went to see Champlain, recommended by college counselor for their excellent CS / cybersecurity programs… and decided to also look at UVM, which is across the street… She liked Champlain, but UVM blew us away.
Lehigh admissions difficulty is actually very similar to Case Western, and Northeastern. While Naviance is helpful, it is difficult to draw accurate conclusions without a large enough sample. Additionally, Lehigh is working very hard to improve its diversity, and the Head of Admissions is a URM. Please don’t rule Lehigh out based on a small Naviance sample. It may be a good fit.