Would like to make a point about larger schools. They are not all equal and there are a few things to think about. I speak from the perspective of a mom whose youngest son (about to graduate with a CS degree- YAY!) ended up going to a ginormous state university (OOS unfortunately for us, but highly ranked for engineering). I never thought that my awkward, disorganized son (ADHD plus slightly on the ASD spectrum) could handle a university with a 30K+ enrollment. A number of factors made the experience very good for him.
Although S’s university is very large, with many, many schools and majors, the engineering and LAS quads are contiguous and compact. My son used APs for many of his liberal arts reqs, so only needed 12 credits total. Three of the classes he was able to take online. Thus most of his classes were in the engineering quad, an easy, FLAT walk from his dorm (and later apartment). Conversely, at one school S considered, the engineering quad was a bus ride away from the LAS quad, where mandatory math classes were held. At another, the engineering building was a 30 min uphill climb from the mandatory frosh dorm. CONVENIENCE is huge for our type of kids. S, like yours, is sensitive to heat and sweat. Racing across campus to class in a lather- better avoided.
Yes, there are a lot of students at my son’s uni. This means a lot of engineering types. S went to a small HS and was pretty unique. Suddenly he had a large pool of his tribe to make friends with. He thrived.
The large size of S’s university means that almost all academic stuff is online-- not just registration, but also homework submissions, assignment grades, syllabi, practice exams, discussion and support boards etc. The uni avoids handwriting and paper. In HS, my son would forget to turn in HW that was in the bottom of his backpack! Academic computerization solved this. Not all colleges are equal in the extent of their adoption of this so check this factor.
My son’s U has a student chapter of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery). They had a kind of a clubhouse (a classroom) with sofas and computers where people would just hang out in a low key way, coding, chatting, even napping. S met a lot of like-minded people just hanging out there. You can check out which universities have chapters here:
https://www.acm.org/chapters/find-a-chapter
The presence of a chapter is just an indicator that there’s a good concentration of serious CS students at a particular campus. My S became very involved and ended up running a Special Interest Group within the chapter. It developed his speaking skills and was a nice little bullet point for his resume.
Research- The summer after freshman year, S was able to work for a professor who had a small grant. This experience helped him get an internship at a major tech company sophomore year. If a school offers these kinds of opportunities, it’s a nice plus.
Class size concerns: introductory or required CS class sizes are going to be large at many schools due to the popularity of the major. I would be more concerned about what kind of support is offered to students who struggle. Support can include online resources, tutoring, study groups, teaching assistants, discussion groups, class forums etc. Some kids are more comfortable getting help more anonymously than approaching their major professor for a course, especially as freshmen.
Examples: some CS classes at my son’s U have an online forum on the class page where you can post any question to be answered by fellow students or a TA. It’s a critical piece of communication for the course so it’s a very active part of the site. Boise State U (which I realize is not on your list for various reasons) has the Kount Center which offers tutoring for CS classes including some of the tough requirements. Check it out
https://coen.boisestate.edu/cs/computer-science-tutoring-center-cstc/
then see if any of your S’s preferred unis offer a similar option.
In junior and senior electives, even at a large uni, my son was in classes as small as 10, so he was able to forge relationships with professors for recommendations.
I will also check with my S to see if he has any advice for a rising H.S. junior in terms of CS activities/useful resources.
14 is a nice size. 4-6 is so small over 4 year.