RPI can be stingy. However, a female from Hawaii is an outstanding catch in their eyes. RPI made a point in their admissions presentation of stating their desire to attract students from all 50 states. I heard about someone from Hawaii a few years back who received an extremely generous package. Troy has a lot of nice architecture and cool restaurants. Although the Adirondacks are “relatively close” to Troy, that just means you can see the mountains in the background. It’s about an hour’s drive to get to the mountains. Saratoga has a great main street and is about 45 minutes away. The engineering program is very well-repected.
WPI is a very nice campus - if you go all the way to Amherst, I would say go a little further and get a tour of WPI. It’s worth it. My daughter visited WPI twice and had a very good impression of it both times, and ultimately decided to attend. The surrounding area is not so hot; comparable to RPI/Troy. My daughter has not had a lot of free time to explore, so I don’t know much beyond the campus.
University of Rochester has a very pretty campus and there are some great restaurants there, too. College life there really revolves around the campus - most kids stay on campus 4 years. The engineering program is rigorous and tends towards the more theoretical/less hands on, though I would not say there is no opportunity for hands on experience. Very nice school!
Stevens has a pretty, treed campus. I was pleasantly surprised. And Hoboken is the hip place to live. The views from Stevens across the river to NYC are fantastic. The money part of the tour is taking students to the cafeteria. The view is enticing. They have a co-op program. I know kids who have really liked Stevens. They have a strong entrepreneurial bent. I never worked with a Stevens Engineer so I can’t speak to the quality of the program.
You already have some reviews on RIT. I can’t add much. We were very impressed with the facilities; machine shops, 3D printers, etc.
Your daughter could get internships from any of the schools you are looking at. RIT, Drexel, and Northeastern are know for their co-op programs.
Case and WPI were the most generous of the schools my daughter applied to. We were not eligible for FA, but she did get nice merit scholarships. RPI was the least generous. Rochester and Stevens were in the middle. I think of the private schools, RIT would have been the least expensive for us as their tuition is lower than the other schools to begin with. She was offered honors programs/undergraduate research stipend at some of these schools, I’m sure your daughter would receive similar offers, if not better.
I’m sure your daughter will have a lot of great choices!