@PBD - Congrats to you and your son - welcome to Terp Nation! I know how tough the decision process is, but I am sure your son is going to LOVE Maryland as much as mine did.
Your comment about research is a very interesting point…when he was in high school, research opportunities were not one of the “selling points” for my son (at that point, he associated the concept with high school English and history research paper assignments, which held no interest for him), but then he found out at Maryland that engineering research is all about hands-on, applied engineering, and he really enjoyed it immensely!