Help my junior make a list: small class size, good STEM (CS/math/bio) and research opportunities, blue states, <$40K with need-based aid

Before or after the MIT fly-in, can she arrange to visit other nearby colleges of interest? Brown is only a short train ride away and I agree with others here that it would be an excellent choice for her. It has great APMA, CS, and computational biology majors (Brown calls them concentrations) and several combo concentrations as well: APMA/CS and APMA/Bio. There are no distribution requirements except for two writing courses — and some STEM classes can even fulfill them (including a couple of specially designated CS classes). Very LGBTQ friendly and an entire residential program house of kids who like board games and other similar interests where she can join as of February freshman year as out-of-house and then live in as a resident from sophomore years on. They also host a board game night once a week for the whole campus (ie, non-members), and there is at least one other organization that does the same on a different day).

As with MIT, definitely a reach, but since she’ll be nearby anyway, definitely worth a visit. I would just check the calendars and try not to be there during parents’ weekend if possible, which is coming up, as that skews the atmosphere.