Direct admission vs secondary admission is not an important factor for me as long as there is a way into the major through just having a certain GPA (like Virginia tech 3.0 should not be too bad, A and M 3.75 is challenging but I think it is doable for me, I like physics which I think is probably one of the harder classes in the first year engineering before Etam).
I would prefer to be somewhat near a city especially if the university is not super famous so that opportunities for internships are better (many of my current ideas for schools are bad at this)
A practical focus would be cool but not a big deal as much of that stuff can also be learned on the side.
However I would consider both of these secondary to the cost.
IDK of any privates which would have a decent shot at merit scholarships to bring to COA to around 40k or lower and most of the state schools have huge classes, but this is not a huge deal to me as I am a strong self-learner