@Engineer80, I’m aware. Thank you. I was responding to this that you said “Stevens has four national laboratories.” They do not. They have zero national laboratories. That in no way doesn’t mean Stevens doesn’t have something to offer. They certainly do. It was meant to reassure the OP that National Labs don’t affiliate with random schools and that Iowa State’s affiliation with Ames Lab is a positive data point for Iowa State. It is in no way a negative point for any of the other schools in question. I don’t have a dog in this hunt. My son considered all of them except Illinois and chose not to attend any of them.