We've not visited A&M - only Purdue and Maryland. A&M was more a case where they were in the top
10 for his major (yes, Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering), they might be a wildcard tuition-wise, and he knows someone there (his predecessor as drum major). GT and VT were "just in case" to round out options. He had considered MIT but soured on them, he never really gave Stanford thought, ruled out Caltech somewhat quickly. For whatever reason never really considered Illinois or Texas. Same with Princeton.
We WERE planning to go back to Purdue and maybe zip up to Michigan, but now I'm not as sure.
Worst comes to worst, he stays at UMD. Which isn't bad at all. Still top ten, in-state, and he'd know people. Oh, and no band tryouts!
(And thanks for that link, IND - that might be an interesting option to consider.)