For Urban + Diversity + affordable + poli sci, he might look into SUNY Albany. The diversity here is notable, with Black students comprising almost 20% of the undergrad population, 18% Hispanic/LatinX, 9% Asian, and 43% white. SUNY’s Flagship Match agreement includes Maryland, so you’d pay no more than the cost of UMD, and potentially less with merit. Albany is the state capital, so there are ample opportunities for involvement in the political sphere. There’s both a Poli Sci major and a more-interdisciplinary Public Policy major with multiple sub-concentrations. If he leans back toward IT, there’s an Informatics major with an IT concentration, and the engineering school offers a limited range of majors (ECE, CS, Environmental & Sustainable Engineering, Nanoscale Engineering, & Nanoscale Science). I’m not familiar with the barriers to switching majors here; that would need to be investigated specifically with respect to any programs of interest. The Honors College (to which I believe he would be admitted) offers its own residential community (which could make a big school feel smaller), in addition to priority registration and enhanced academic programming. While he might find less red tape and more flexibility at a private U, the priority registration would help with access to classes for exploring his interests; and the racial/ethnic/economic diversity here would be hard to match at all but the most competitive and expensive privates.
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