Colorado State might be the sweet spot of school spirit (I don’t think the football team is great, but there is a lot of spirit), manageable course load, great outdoor activities and outing club, kids that like to be active and a great college town. With his stats he’d probably get into the honors program which is really value added (early registration, smaller discussion-based interdisciplinary classes, honors/engineering dorm). It wasn’t originally in my son’s top 3, but after our visit he just couldn’t get it out of his mind. We went back a second time and it was a YES before we even left campus.
It’s probably worth a trip to CO if you can swing it to visit Mines, CU Boulder, and CSU. They all have very different vibes. The type of engineering he decides on will also rule in/out certain schools.
Yes my D18 loved Utah, especially the climbing and hiking. So much so that she spent every summer there. They have good merit for 4.0UW and many students are super outdoorsy.
Yes, actually it was because our daughter did a summer academic camp at CSU that she became aware of the possibilities of attending CU, CSU and Mines. We toured the others while we were out there for the camp. CSU is a very nice school and Fort Collins is really great town. I have spent a lot of time in Colorado and I put Fort Collins as the best town in the State and think Golden is second. The primary reason our daughter chose Mines over CU and CSU was she wanted a smaller school with more intimate involvement in clubs. She is on three club sports teams, has a paid research job and is a part of couple academic clubs all as a Freshman. Our older daughter (Civil Engineer who attended a prominent state Flagship) said, the younger one has done more in her Freshman year than I did in 4 years and the older daughter was very active it’s just tougher in a big school. Yes, you have a lot of opportunities but you share those with the other 25K to 35K students. I guess it’s the Big Fish in Small Pond affect. Still I agree CSU could be a good fit in the OP’s case.
Virginia Tech immediately comes to mind. It’s got an engineering focus, solid reputation, powerful alumni network, and there is a huge focus on sports and fun. Beautiful campus. You don’t need to be a genius to get in but it does get harder every year. I’d rank it just below the heavy hitters in the world of engineering schools.
Yes, I was thinking CSU over Mines because they want sports and school spirit which were on my son’s list as well. He was looking at Big 10 type schools, but CSU was the sweet sport with enough sports and spirit, but tons of outdoor stuff as well. I’m not sure about the engineering school (DS is in the Warner School of Natural Resources), but it definitely has a smaller feel than some of the other big schools we looked at.
