Congrats on three great acceptances!
I personally think that college towns tend to be their own lovely bubble with many aspects of urban living that folks find attractive. But if she visited Purdue and wasn’t that enthused about W. Lafayette, then that certainly does not stand well in its favor. In that respect, Wisconsin and Ohio State seem better-suited.
This is an honest question, as I really don’t know the answer. But how are tOSU grads received at automotive companies that are based in Michigan? It may be because I live with a die-hard Michigan fan, but he’s not the only one from MI I’ve heard say, “My two favorite teams are Michigan and anyone playing Ohio State.” And there’s the old Woody Hayes tale of running out of gas and pushing his vehicle into Ohio so as not to give MI a single nickel of his money. So it’s not a super big consideration, but it might be worth investigating. And there are plenty of jobs in automotive technology that are outside of MI, and this may not necessarily be worth over $30k/year for your family.