ABET accreditation matters 100% more than school prestige - which doesn’t mean prestige for engineering btw.
And there are sooooooooooo many great aero programs you like haven’t heard of - from Embry Riddle to Florida Tech to UAH - which is just surrounded by defense companies. Huntsville is Rocket City - and we are moving Space Command from Colorado to there.
That’s not the say the big names, the Michigan, UIUC, and Purdue’s of the world aren’t fantastic because they are and they are certainly leading schools.
But as I noted above with my Bama kid who turned down Purdue, yes, they all work together. That’s just the real world…no different than any company I’ve worked at.
So make a true list - decide what type of school you want - environment - urban, suburban, rural, size, weather and more - and stop dropping names for sake of them being names - like Pomona, Swat, Vandy (the last two are fine engineering programs but most could think of 100 more suitable).
Now - aero is a fine major but MechE works too.
My son had two aero offers as a Meche (his goal and internship was automotive). But he accepted a job in aero because of the leadership rotational which he liked (it allowed him to live in four places over two years).
But guess what - non aero companies hire aero majors and aero companies hire CE, AE, MechE, EE, etc. and more.
So step back from the name - and figure out - what do I truly want in a college - and go from there to build a list.
Go look up some jobs - many of them state - ABET accreditation required. So yes, short of Stanford, that’s the very most important thing.
Whether you choose a $20K school (like Alabama) or an $80-100K school, you will likely end up with a similar career result - if you work in engineering. Stats show only about 25% of engineering majors work in the field.
Good luck.