Sadly, he is not a bike rider … yet. Maybe something to work on over the summer!
It’s funny when little things like this become important. And visiting the NE in the summer will be beautiful and warm- hard to challenge the worry about cold 
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Of the suggestions I made above, I think that Drexel, Marquette, and Saint Louis should be eliminated based on the additional information, but Fairfield might still be a contender.
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Thank you! Will be sure to check out Fairfield.
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I know that the family is looking at mid to large schools because your kid has 3400 students in his high school, but the obvious pairing with Purdue in my mind is Rose-Hulman. It’s 1h39m from Purdue, whereas Colorado State is more than 16 hours from Purdue. Plus it’s part of the IIE Global E3 institutions list that was shared above…meaning it’s possible to study/intern abroad at a school in Germany (or elsewhere). It’s one of the top engineering schools in the country and there should be no restrictions about changing majors (so long as it’s STEM). And a quick look at Google Maps seems as though the school might meet a lot of your son’s aesthetic preferences:
So since a small school hasn’t made the visit list, just thought I’d mention this one again (as I know I’m not the first to do so), should your family end up visiting Purdue.
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It’s a great suggestion, and totally valid. Rose has come up in college discussions a few times, since my husband started his college experience at Rose and transferred his second year to Purdue.
(My husband came from a really tiny high school and was expecting Rose to go co-ed his first year…he found out when he arrived on campus that change was going to be delayed until his senior year. It didn’t help that his girlfriend broke up with him his freshman year! But he has some great stories about RHIT traditions, along the lines I haven’t heard from his time at Purdue.)
I have a feeling if we do make the trek to Indiana, both campuses will be on our list to visit.
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Engineering Physics is a direct admit major at Ohio State. Believe it or not there is more to the university than football and you will find students in the library even on home game days.
South campus and the Oval have a traditional feel and the campus itself is very walkable. They have purposely continued to keep undergraduate classes and their residential areas in a pedestrian friendly footprint. In fact the area is so compact that when my D moved off campus she never needed any other transportation than her two feet around main campus. Even when she preferred to live south of campus and her engineering classes were on north campus she walked to class.
https://engineering.osu.edu/undergraduate/future-students/admissions/new-students
https://library.osu.edu/site/archives/2019/11/20/100-years-later-and-still-growing/
Apply by EA deadline for engineering admissions and to maximize merit aid.
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Two others size wise like UAH - and safeties and low cost that you might check out - UT Chattanooga - cooler city than Huntsville - right across the bridge from campus - and Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, a small city - half way between Nashville and Knoxville.
They might be others to consider that are smaller - UAH size.
Va Tech is so nice - glad he liked it.
Best of luck.
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Okay, last post with suggestions (for now 
). But these schools offer numerous ABET-accredited engineering options and a major in German, and I suspect a fair amount of flexibility in changing majors. Additionally, from glancing at Google Maps, I think these don’t have major roads going through campus, though others who have walked the grounds would be needed to verify.
- Binghamton (NY), and they are trying to attract more top OOS students via merit aid
- Iowa State
- Penn State
- Southern Methodist (TX)
- U. of Cincinnati (OH) (@bearcatfan)
- U. of Maryland - College Park
@BuckeyeMWDSG, would entry to the engineering physics major allow OP’s son to switch to other engineering majors should he decide on a particular engineering discipline?
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Oh, forgot the German part. Colorado State has an orientation program in Germany for engineering majors before the start of freshman year. He might be interested in that.
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It’s my understanding that as long as he was admitted to the College of Engineering he could switch into any of the direct admit majors (Aviation*, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering Physics, Environmental Engineering, Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, or Welding Engineering) but not into the capacity constrained majors (Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering (ENG) / Computer and Information Science (ASC), Mechanical Engineering).
So if he might want to do one of the capacity constrained engineering disciplines that admit on a ‘pre-major’ basis like ME, then he should apply as an ME because only pre-major MEs will be allowed to apply to that major in future.
This is a system transitioning so there are a lot of archived web pages that are out of date or pertinent to current students, but not for incoming classes. Because it is in flux, I’d reach out directly to an engineering advisor for the most up to date information when weighing admissions offers.
*Professional Pilot Certification (PPC) continues to have limited space and students will need to request joining the specialization separately from enrolling in the Aviation Engineering Major.
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The CSU orientation in Germany sounds cool! Another possibility to consider, if he’d like a near-term experience in Germany, could be to do a “super-senior” AFS year in Germany - live with a host family, and do an extra year of HS in Germany, where he could certainly get calculus under his belt as well as an AP-level physical science class. If he wants to aim high in terms of competitive programs, this would strengthen his application both in terms of rigor, and in terms of bringing a distinctive experience to the mix.
I’m not in any way saying that he can’t get into a good college without doing this. But if he’d value the experience (which in many ways I think can be better than college-level study abroad, because you’re really embedded in a community in a way that college students usually are not), it could be a win-win.
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Looks like Clemson is on the list still. Given the large number of German companies in upstate SC, I think he will have some special opportunities with his background in German. For example, BMW prefers their engineering interns to have taken some German!
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The Germany/BMW plant is definitely a good point when it comes to thinking about opportunities at Clemson. Thanks for the suggestions! I might try to highlight it with S25 come application time.
If German is important for BMW, then it might also be for Mercedes-Benz which has a factory in Alabama.
I know that UA-Huntsville is on the list, but UA-Tuscaloosa might also be worth a gander. It has Greek life and football fandom, which are not your son’s interests, but at a big state flagship, there will be thousands upon thousands of people for whom that is not their scene. I’ve heard that it has a beautiful campus, which might be attractive to your son as well. Just throwing it out as another option to consider.
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Just wanted to say that I think UNC-C could be a good safety for him if he likes it. Also would save a bunch in his 529 if he wants to go on to grad school.
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Thanks to everyone for all of the helpful suggestions! Lots of good options for him/us to sift through this summer.
S25 has a 6-week job in June and July with a conservation corps youth crew where he’ll be doing trail maintenance, installing playground safety equipment, removing invasive plants, historic preservation on a local cemetery and pine straw/mulch distribution for a local historic park. The crew leaders had a meeting for the kids and parents this past weekend, and I think we all have high hopes for what the summer will bring.
Add to that some academic updates: he got his SAT back (790 written, 730 math) and managed all A’s for his classes, so he’s sitting on a 4.479 weighted/3.958 unweighted.
All in all, thanks to responses here (and after getting some tours under our belt), I’m feeling much better than I did when I originally posted this. I know feel pretty confident about S25 finding places where he’ll be happy and get a chance to grow into a productive member of society, and find some nice people to hang out with.
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