When building a college list, the most important school(s) are those in your extremely likely bucket. These are schools that are extremely likely to admit you, be affordable, and that you would be happy to attend for at least four years. You need to have at least one (and I generally suggest at least two).
In terms of how you want to balance out your list, think about your own individual makeup. How would you feel if you have 1 or 2 acceptances and then 18 rejections or waitlists? If that would just build a fire under you to show those 18 schools how big their loss was by not accepting you, then you can have a very reach-heavy list. But if getting that many rejections would be damaging and make you question yourself and how incredible you are, then make sure you balance your list in proportion with how affected you would be by waitlists/rejections.
The schools below are sorted by my guesses as to what your chances might be. With a few exceptions, I usually leave the chancing on California publics to @ucbalumnus and @gumbymom, so I generally won’t mention them, but I do think you might want to give some serious consideration to San Diego State.
Most of the schools are in cities or cool college towns. All are ABET-accredited for civil engineering and/or environmental engineering (the latter of which is generally considered a subspecialty of civil). And many professionals suggest getting a degree in civil engineering so as to leave one some wiggle-room depending on what the job market looks like in the future.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
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Cal State – Chico: About 13k undergrads
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Colorado State: About 26k undergrads
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Marquette (WI): About 7500 undergrads
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Seattle U.: About 4k undergrads
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SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry (NY): About 1600 undergrads and students can cross-register with neighboring Syracuse
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U. of Cincinnati (OH): About 29k undergrads
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U. of Nevada – Reno: About 17k undergrads
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U. of Portland (OR): About 3400 undergrads
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U. of Vermont: About 12k undergrads
Likely (60-79%)
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Santa Clara (CA): About 6100 undergrads
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Syracuse (NY): About 15k undergrads…likely if you show a lot of demonstrated interest…but if you show none, it’s a likely rejection.
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U. of Colorado (for engineering): About 30k undergrads
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U. of Pittsburgh (PA ): About 20k undergrads
Toss-Up (40-59%)
- Loyola Marymount (CA): About 7300 undergrads
Lower Probability (20-39%)
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U. of Florida: About 35k undergrads
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U. of Miami (FL): About 13k undergrads
Low Probability (less than 20%)
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Brown (RI): About 7600 undergrads
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Cornell (NY): About 16k undergrads
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Duke (NC): About 6600 undergrads
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U. of Southern California: About 21k undergrads