Congrats - that’s a nice improvement!
I don’t think it moves the needle in terms of changing your application strategy, but it gives you a bit more cushion in terms of admission/merit/honors odds. I’d be surprised if you didn’t get into Rutgers now, although of course surprises happen and you need fallback options, but you have Rowan so you are in good shape.
Have you identified any reachy private U’s where the need-based aid is generous enough to make budget?
My sense is that even with a 1500+ SAT, the schools that are realistic are going to be not-quite-generous-enough. It would probably take a school like Rice, for example, to get enough need-based aid. And probably even an ED application won’t be quite enough to get you into a school that competitive. But then again, the odds aren’t zero. If you run NPC’s for some big reaches and find one or two that would give you great aid, there’s no harm in taking your shot and lobbing an ED application, as long as you’d be happy with a binding offer. But if the projected costs are comparable and you prefer a large public anyway, then your existing list (minus the ones that don’t make budget) is completely fine.
If I had to bet at this point, my money is on your ending up at Rutgers. I think you’ll get in, and I think it will emerge as the best value among your affordable acceptances. (Yes, you could go to a big-merit southern flagship for a bit less, but not a lot less than Rutgers… so it’s a matter of whether you prefer to go farther from home and/or prefer the big-southern-school culture to the big-mid-Atlantic-school culture. Academically, you’re not going to get more reputational or experiential bang for your buck by going to any OOS school that will beat Rutgers on price.)
Have you run the NPC for Syracuse? Just wondering because 1) obviously the SU classes you’ve taken in high school would count seamlessly and 2) it is more large-public-like than most private u’s. My guess is the aid probably won’t be enough, but it’s worth checking just in case, as it might be an appealing option if it could make budget. Likewise U of Miami (FL). I wouldn’t say either has a stronger MechE reputation than Rutgers, but they’re in the same ballpark so they could be worth considering if the NPC were favorable. I don’t think the odds of their coming in cheaper than BU are very high but it doesn’t hurt to check.