Do some research as to what engineering grads from the 3 colleges earn 10 or 20 years in to their career.
I'm not sure that there are breakdowns by school for civil engineering majors. As well, a complicating factor is that at both Hopkins and Maryland, he can do a 5-year bachelors/masters, which is the plan if he goes to either, and data on that result is even sparser.
sitetest
This is the REAL trick. I’m an EE from Cal Poly. My metric would be first - what are the average hiring rate for grads in his major RIGHT NOW! How many of them are going without offers! Prestigious schools don’t matter that much in engineering AFTER the first job either.
My son is going out of state to the University of Oklahoma because of a National Merit Scholarship (OU has some of the best promotion to get those folks..) In any case, it is costing us about $8K/year so far.
So - your cost PLUS how he feels about the campus PLUS job prospects are the real metric. I know at least one Civil engineer who graduated near the top of her class last year and doesn’t have a job in her field. Engineering jobs are disappearing in this country right now. Engineering is being out-sourced just like manufacturing.