I tell people that my path through college was the right one – go to a big, cheap state school with a half-decent program in your area of interest. If you go to grad school, pay the big bucks and go to a top school. This way only 1/3 of your education is expensive and you still get the big-name school on the resume, and you get the better education when you are more mature and actually interested in learning something.
It didn’t come to my mind right away, but I think SLO is a decent choice. Many large state schools have good engineering programs, though.
There is nothing wrong with general engineering degrees, either. Make sure they can handle at least pre-calculus in high-school. Math should be easy for them. If not, it’s off to business school.
And please, for god’s sake, make your little engineers take economics.
