UH Honors vs. UT CAP through UTSA vs. Texas A&M for EE/CS

My biggest problem is that I really, really want to be a longhorn, but my GPA/rank is low due to going to one of, if not the, most competitive high schools in the state and expect to be given the CAP. That being said, my high test scores/ECs/etc seem to have gotten me past engineering review at TAMU, and I got excepted for general engineering.

I know TAMU is one of the best engineering schools in the nation and only marginally worse than UT, but i dislike the idea of going to such a conservative school, especially considering that I’m not white. I keep reading/hearing from students about how many of the people there aren’t going to say anything explicitly racist, but generally try their best to avoid interacting with minorities.

I like UT exponentially more than TAMU.

UH has a good honors college and would cost around $4k a year, but I would have to commute from home, which is something I would hate to do because I really would like to dorm. If college really is going to be the best four years of my life, my experience from the last four years tell me that it won’t be if I stay at home.

I’m 100% confident I can make it to UT through CAP at UTSA, but I’m not sure how hard it would be to get to the engineering college because CAP only guarantees a liberal arts major.

Should I suck it up and just go to TAMU? Should I just go to UH to save a whole lot of money? Should I got to UTSA so I can CAP and definitely go to UT?

Note that TAMU engineering frosh must compete to enter specific engineering majors. Although almost all get into a major, not all of them get into their first choice major. 3.5 college GPA auto-admits to your first choice major, but otherwise, you must apply with essays into a competitive process.
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major/general-engineering-program/class-of-2020
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major/application-preview

On the money question, how much debt would each involve? What would the cost and debt be at UH if you live on campus? If the cost is low enough, that could be an option, at least for the first year (about half of UH frosh live in the dorms).