Agreed that there’s no need to go directly to a masters; getting some work experience first is typically a good idea, and there’s no reason a student with an ABET-accredited bachelor’s in CivE shouldn’t be employable. Sometimes an employer will even pay for a masters, although this unfortunately isn’t as common as it used to be.
It is okay if the OP prefers Iowa State to ‘Bama. They are culturally quite different and any given student could legitimately prefer one environment to the other. Point well taken that neither is particularly diverse, etc.
The bottom line is that this student does not have to go that far from home to get an affordable education, even if UMD doesn’t come through on the first pass. (And I hope and expect that it will; the great likelihood, in my view, is that this student will end up at College Park.) Freshman admissions aren’t the last chance at UMD; they can always do the CC pathway to a UMD degree if their admissions outcomes are really unfortunate (which I don’t think will happen). Plus, if they prefer the northeast to the south or midwest, good options have been discussed, particularly the SUNYs.
U of Louisville has been very briefly mentioned but could be worth highlighting. It’s more diverse than ISU or Bama (64% white), and almost 30% come from OOS. Their curriculum combines a project-based philosophy modeled after Cal Poly SLO, combined with a strong emphasis on co-op education; and the engineering school also has its own LLC, which provides a great, supportive residential community in which to study engineering. They do have a 5th-year masters track, too. Civil Engineering » Perhaps worth a closer look. Out-Of-State Scholarships & Aid | UofL
Closer to home, I know several merit-chasing engineering kids who got fantastic merit offers from Temple and have been very happy with their education there and the additional perks of the honors program. It’s close to home, less than 50% white, has CivE with a 4+1 option and even offers engineering coursework at their campus in Rome so that engineering students can study abroad without getting behind - CivE students on a Rome semester get to “explore aqueducts, bridges and roads that are still standing 1,000 years after their construction.” Civil Engineering Major | Temple University | Temple University