Need help picking an undergrad engineering school

[minesweeper]

If you don't want to read all the background stuff, here are my three main questions:

1. For chemical, civil, and mechanical engineering, would attending a lower-ranked state flagship like U Nebraska significantly impact my future opportunities? I want to work in engineering, not finance.

2. How much are students attending shortly after major university-wide budget cuts affected by these reductions in state support? This applies to current attempts by the MN Legislature to cut funding for UMN.

3. I've always been more interested in large schools - but could I get the same kind of choices at a smaller tech school like Colorado School of Mines?

Here's the background story:

I'm a high school senior struggling to choose somewhere for college next year. Here are my options, with cost and brief comments:

Colorado School of Mines
~$27k/yr total

Iowa State U
~$20k/yr total

Northwestern U
~$52k/yr total

U Michigan
~$48k/yr total

U Minnesota
~$7k/yr total

U Nebraska
~$3k/yr total

I am very fortunate to be able to afford any of these without debt. However, some of these sums are obviously quite large and carry significant opportunity cost.

Thanks for your help!

 

[edgepflow]

Minnesota is strong especially in mechanical engineering and looks like a good value (if you can take the winters).