I’m a parent of a S22, so I have a ways to go before facing this decision. This discussion has been helpful to me, because I’ve recently learned about Rose-Hulman. I live in California and know about Cal Poly. One item that will be important down the road for S22 is the typical class size. We’re interested in smaller class sizes. On that score, RHIT does fit better (I think) than Cal Poly.
Looking at the common data sets for both, I estimate that RHIT’s average class size is 19, Cal Poly’s is 35. 97% of RHIT’s classes are less than 30 students. 47% of Cal Poly’s classes are less than 30 students.
This doesn’t mean we wouldn’t look at Cal Poly for fit. I mean, what a great school and we’d be in-state! But from the data, initial view is RHIT is better for smaller class sizes.
RHIT data: https://www.rose-hulman.edu/academics/academic-affairs/irpa/reports/cds_2017-18.pdf#page=25