<p>One thing to keep in mind is that a school like 'Zona (and probably CU as well) would have a higher-than-average proportion of spoiled rich kids looking to drink and party rather than study (even compared to many other state schools). Also, UA doesn’t seem to devote much resources to honors (but ASU seems to devote more to Barrett, though ASU is more of a commuter school). However, if you are NMS (which I assume if you say UA is full-ride), NMTech and UT-Dallas do not have these problems. There are other complaints about them, but they may not matter for a kid considering CalTech/Mudd. BTW, a large proportion of the kids at UA/ASU/NMTech will drop out after freshman year. Blame the public school systems in AZ & NM as well as lenient entrance policies at those schools for that.</p>
<p>I would read StudentReviews .com on all these schools. Keep in mind that the most disgruntled students would be the ones posting, but you can get a sense for each school because the students tend to complain about the same things at each school but they vary a lot across schools. Something complained about greatly at CalTech is never complained about at Mudd. Something complained about a lot at Mudd is never complained about at 'Zona, and vice versa, etc.</p>