<p>Ewww. That is what many of the schools Raspberry listed bring to my mind (sorry!...and except for Stanford and Yale, which are awesome.) I think you want a strong engineering/ science curriculum but you also want a cool community with awesome people (which a lot of tech schools lack).</p>
<p>The LACs are great places, but they often require a fifth year in order to get a B.E. or B.S in engineering degree. </p>
<p>I think as a school you would like Brown and Vassar the best, but since you want to be an engineer consider Princeton, Cornell, Stanford, Yale, and Penn. All "campuses" with good engineering.</p>
<p>Personally I would go early for Stanford. Great community, great engineering, and people don't work themselves into the ground.</p>