<p>Just like pants. Sometimes it fits today, sometimes its too big tomorrow. and at other times too tight. Just like being married. :)</p>
<p>If your son is very hands-on and interested in finding a job following graduation, I would suggest asking about the strength of co-op programs and whether students (not just those with perfect or near-perfect GPA’s or those with high school research experience) find it easy to get meaningful jobs in research labs, as early as freshman or sophomore years.</p>
<p>WRT engineering programs, many schools have enormous attrition rates. Sometimes students decide that engineering just isn’t for them, but too often good students with lots of potential run afoul of brutal weeder courses that are badly managed, with little encouragement to seek help, re-take a class, or maintain optimism in the face of less than perfect grades. Some will need support services for students who may take a bit of time to find their stride and develop study routines that work for the types of courses they are taking. So, I would also look into the advising systems in place at various schools.</p>
<p>For my two kids, spending a night on the campus was critical in determining where they chose to enroll. But their experiences were very different. I imagine each person has his/her own unique way of selecting a school.</p>
<p>My son’s stats were sort of like your son’s: high SAT scores, lower gpa. So he developed a list of 9 schools: 3 reach, 3 match, 3 safety. He didn’t get into any of the reach schools, but was admitted to all the match and safety schools. He had spent the night at one of the “safety” schools, Willamette University in Salem, and had a great experience there. But he seemed really undecided in April, so we arranged for him and his Dad to travel back east to look again at Boston U., Emory U., and Trinity College, CT (none offered financial aid, in case you are wondering). Ironically, on the flight out, he turned to his Dad and said, “I really don’t see why we’re making this trip. I want to go to Willamette!” So help me, we really didn’t hear that message until that moment. Grrrrr. But that’s where he is now, and he’s really happy there.</p>
<p>Schools like Willamette and Case Western, mentioned above, will most likely offer your son a strong merit package, given his accomplishments. Willamette offers a 3-2 engineering program in agreement with Columbia University in New York. But it sounds like your son wants a critical mass of what my daughter (now at MIT) used to call “nerdly ilk”, the sort one finds at an engineering school. Regardless of the 3-2 program, you don’t really find that in a liberal arts college. </p>
<p>Good luck with the search! I’m sure there will be some good choices, and it’s possible that “fit” may not become evident until much later, as it did for my son.</p>