The fact that it’s not accredited might just be a plus. This is a student whose curious about engineering but not yet committed in that direction. The fact that it’s not ABET would likely give him more flexibility. He can always pursue a master’s if he wants the ABET accreditation IF he even decides to pursue engineering at all. The same advantages would hold true for the program at Washington & Lee.
Good point about their being no merit aid at Dartmouth. Although I probably should have been paying more attention to merit aid, I wasn’t so much trying to pick a college for him, I was more trying to give examples of smaller research universities with strong liberal arts cores but which also offer engineering, some places which would offer the same kind of experience as an LAC. I like your suggestion of Wash U.