Congrats on your strong academics. With Rice on your list (great school) it looks like you are willing to consider the south. You can pick UA Huntsville as a safety with merit. Another thought is Rose-Hulman.
WPI, RPI, and U Mass are the right places given your criteria. More out of curiosity, why do you think you might get a 4 on BC Calc AP? From my experience, a 5 is almost a given for students with your math mind. Is that because the community college did not cover that material?
As others have said, we need more clarity here, in order to make good suggestions. Have you run Net Price Calculators for your super-reach schools that give generous need-based aid (MIT, Rice, Cornell) and verified that you would be full-pay? What is the actual out-of-pocket budget that would allow you to graduate debt-free? Does UMass Amherst make that cut?
You make pretty clear that mental health is your biggest constraint, and that is absolutely legitimate. Yet, your college list seems to be constructed as if undergraduate admissions were the finish line of the race of life, and a “trophy” acceptance the prize.
In reality, the prize to be chasing right now is the environment that will best support your growth and exploration. A rankings list, or a list of what your counselor “forced you to consider,” is not the most effective way of identifying your best options. (Is this your counselor at school, or a private counselor? Keep in mind that a counselor may benefit professionally from placing students at certain schools, but that has very little to do with what’s best for you, nor will the counselor be helping with student loan payments!)
There are many excellent schools where you can study EE/CS/materials/mechatronics/etc. Factors to be looking at:
- Affordability, as you noted - carrying debt will be an unnecessary stressor and can limit your options after undergrad.
- Social fit - where will you most easily have your socioemotional needs met so that you can both be happier, and focus more effectively on your academic/career goals?
- Academic fit - where can you explore your interests with the desired breadth and depth, and have the flexibility to choose alternate pathways, such as a Materials major rather than EE if you discovered that you preferred this? A school like Purdue, with First Year Engineering feeding into multiple major options, might be attractive.
- Career-related EC’s that excite you. Sometimes this can be the glue that really holds a college experience together. Robotics? Formula SAE?
- Work-life balance. You’re only going to be able to take advantage of the above if you’re not drowning in terms of your coursework. The whole “drinking from a firehose” culture of schools like MIT can be romanticized, but it’s not ideal for everyone.
You’re the one who needs to live these four years, and pay for whatever portion of the bill gets kicked down the road. Play the long game and invest in your own (mental, physical, and financial) health and happiness for the long haul.
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Congrats on a great record. If you were more “flexible” geographically, you could go South for $20K a year or so.
Given you want strong merit aid, it’s going to be tough in New England. Sure, you can go to a URI, Maine, UNH, or UVM and get merit, but I don’t suspect they are what you seek.
So you’re not interested in a material science degree?
For EE or ECE and I’ll stay in the NE but expand beyond NE, you can look at (for $$) Clarkson (NY)UCONN, Delaware, Lafayette ¶, Manhattan (NY), UMD, UMASS, Olin (Mass), TCNJ (New Jersey), Rutgers (New Jersey), Syracuse (NY), SUNY New Paltz, Union College (NY), Temple ¶.
Good luck.
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