Our daughter is a Freshman MechE major at Mines. Here are the quick positives and negatives
Positives:
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The Campus is nice, the Dorms are very nice and Golden is a great little town. Yes it’s chilly but it’s also Sunny most of the time. She loves the ease at which she can participate in the outdoors and with it being a medium sized school she is active in two club sports.
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Mines accepted her AP and Dual Enrollment credits giving her 34 total of which 21 apply to her major. She should complete her Engineering degree in 4 years taking around 27 hours a year. Her classes are small and in-person averaging around 30 with the biggest being only 60 students. She has had good experiences with her professors, so far. She is active in 3 academic clubs.
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50% of her Freshman class are from out of state and the in-state students are from all over Colorado, so everyone is interested in making new friends instead of clinging to their friends from high school.
Negatives:
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Freshmen are required to have a meal plan. The plans are expensive, the offerings on campus are limited and the food is below average.
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Freshmen have housing on campus, but after Freshmen year there are limited options on campus and off-campus housing is expensive and scarce. Some students have to live 10+ miles away in Lakewood or Arvada. She is lucky that she got into a new Campus apartment for her Sophomore year. It will get better for your son as they are adding housing that should be online by Fall of 2025
I can’t speak for the other schools you mentioned, but I can say that Mines has been a good fit for our daughter. She was accepted at several state flagship University’s with strong engineering programs but she ultimately chose a mid-sized school and has flourished more than I think she would have at the larger schools.