I think your choices of UTD and A&M as your instate backups (if you do end up staying in TX) make sense.
UTD is not a “traditional” Texas campus because it doesn’t have big sports or much in the way of Greek presence. Instead it has a sort of fun, nerdy vibe. It is mainly instate students, but does attract some really bright and motivated students from all over the country due to its National Merit scholarships, so you can make friends from all over. And, as I’m sure you know, it has a strong cognitive sciences program as well as terrific speech pathology and criminology departments, both of which draw heavily on cognitive/neurosciences, so are real world applications forming the possibility for rich collaborations.
A&M is obviously a “traditional” Texas college experience, with big sports and all. However it does offer a strong education, and also participates in National Student Exchange. NSE is a consortium of about 200 schools, mainly in the United States but a few in Canada etc. You can do up to 1 year exchange, your credits transfer automatically, and you pay only in-state tuition wherever you go. Some really cool schools participate including U Mass Amherst, University of Minnesota, a number of California schools etc. https://www.nse.org/exchange/colleges-universities/alpha-location/