Just a local opinion, but I think of Auburn as stronger in artistic majors like architecture or design and Alabama as stronger in STEM. Honestly, though, a lot of it is where your parents went and which team you grew up cheering for, which for us transplants doesn’t apply.
Tuition exchange (TE) is a scholarship opportunity for children of university employees that allows dependents to waived tuition at member schools just like they’d have at their parent’s school, except most schools apply the cap (currently $38K -ish). It’s less competitve than most scholarhips since there are fewer people, but how competitive it is varies greatly by school. I understand Syracuse gives it broadly, while Florida almost never. There’s some mysterious formula about balancing the imports and exports from each school so how many slots there are can vary. One more moving piece in an already complicated game.
Thanks again for the school suggestions – I am passing them along so indirect-thanks from my son too.