Interesting how much overlap my D had with yours.
Yeh, Olin is so small… my D’s class is 800 students. We will cross that bridge if she gets an offer. She considered Harvey Mudd out your way as well but there was little chance of merit aid and she really only wanted to go that far if it was Stanford.
Her “dream school” was Stanford. We told her she could apply, but wouldn’t likely want to pay (if she miraculously got in) if she had other good offers on the table. She decided against applying given the considerable writing supplement they required and the small chance of really attending. In addition to standardized tests, my D was also allergic to the darn essays… it was like pulling teeth as she “doesn’t like writing about herself”.
We visited Cornell - great campus and engineering program. But couldn’t find a good program that balanced her interests. Their design was enviro design and wasn’t sure how we could mix that with something more technical.
Rice seems like a great school. Thoughts on the school since your D1 is there? As you mentioned, it doesn’t have much design though. But, there are some good ME profs their that leverage user centered design, etc. WashU is a bit similar, but they have a design school and a “roll your own” engineering major and she could likely mix in design classes. But, without any aid, neither of these is likely on the table.
Your D has a bunch of good offers and prospects as well! UW and all of the UCs are great schools let alone Stanford and Cornell. Good luck with the rest of the application + decision process. Our D is the first one going through the process… we have 2 more to go… and we have learned how much stress this is for both our D and us!