I agree with Rowan, but will also throw in my favorite underrated safety, the University of Utah. People get scared of the LDS influence, but SLC is less than 50% and the hardcores tend to want to be at BYU. They have a very good engineering program and facilities. The students are crazy about their sports. The dorms are unparalleled, built for the olympics, with the honors dorm recently completed by the Marriott family. They are generous, but best of all, if you stay over your first summer, you can get in state tuition.
On a side note, 1530 is not a “pretty good” SAT score. It is a great score, 99th percentile to be exact. School admins know this. Hanging out on CC too much warps student and parent perspectives on this. Congrats!
