If she’d consider a bigger school, Cal Poly. It feels like a much smaller school than the 20,000 would suggest. Classes are all small and they do not use TAs to teach labs or discussions. WPI narrowly lost out to Cal Poly when my son was choosing. There’s a lot to like there. It wouldn’t qualify as very west coast though. 
She will find serious students and partiers at every school out there. She will find her own peeps.
I’m going to side with @ucbalumnus on the competitive thing. Sure, it’s not pre-med, but when only the top get their choices of major, there’s less incentive to help the competition.