Ok since we are delving out of blue to fun college towns - these are ABET accredited and well under budget, in addition to being in great college areas
U Arkansas - Fayetteville is gorgeous and booming
Kansas State
Kentucky
Miami Ohio - ehhh town.
Ole Miss
UNH
Oklahoma
South Carolina.
Both U of SC and UK are downtown in small cities but feels college-y.
Thank you all. This is really helpful and you definitely read some of the tea leaves - larger school, more north/central, near outdoor adventures. Not strictly ruling out red states but probably not a culture fit for some of the southern schools. We do have a bigger list than what we shared, some of which you also suggested. Some great new additions to consider! Really appreciate it.
Iām going to second @tsbna44ās recommendation of U. of Arkansas. Itās in the northwestern corner of Arkansas which is defintely getting into the ācentralā part of the country, but it has tons of opportunities for people with an interest in the outdoors, and with a lower latitude, the outdoors are even easier to access than they might be in more northern locations. Substantial merit aid is offered (your D would get 80% off the nonresident tuition fee, making tuition & fees less than $15k/year from the New Arkansas Non-Resident Tuition Awards and could potentially receive additional merit that would stack on top of that (source).
This link provides more info on the outdoor opportunities of the area: Things To Do Outdoors | Trails | Northwest Arkansas
Another likely admit with great engineering, in that āsouthern middleā zone, is U of Louisville. 17K undergrads altogether, 2000 in the engineering school. Bioengineering Ā» The engineering curriculum is modeled after Cal Poly SLO - very hands-on and project-based - and engineering has its own LLC https://louisville.edu/housing/living-campus/living-learning-themed-communities/first-year-communities/engineering-living-learning OOS merit is generous. Lots of choral options https://music.louisville.edu/ensembles/choirs . Good walkability: Neighborhoods around UofL achieve highest scores in Louisville for walkability, bikeability, and transit access ā UofL Sustainability
Just skimming here. With CU on the list, consider the Colorado School of Mines. Gender ratio is heavily male, which favors admission odds for females. Direct admission to major. Better chances than direct admission to engineering at CU, but apply ASAP, as historically, EA decisions were made on an informally rolling basis - not sure if Mines still does this. Not quite a safety, but you might hear back early, in which case it becomes a safety once that admission is in hand. Submit the 1350 assuming math score is decent.
School of Mines doesnāt have a biomedical engineering major and itās also small - very different than someone looking for a big public school. Iād recommend CSU before Mines if they want another Colorado option.
My D26 looked into CSUās BME program, and it seemed interesting! Everyone earns a dual degree with another engineering discipline (chemical, computer, electrical, or mechanical), which seems like it would help with employability and flexibility in the future. Worth checking out.
From what Iāve read about BME (note: my GS is a BME major) is that because itās a hybrid major, students with this major arenāt really masterās of either half of the hybrid combination. The dual degree approach seems to me to make a lot of sense.
I would check out UMass Lowell as a potential safety
