Shameless plug for Rose-Hulman to anyone whose looking for a top-tier engineering school without the giant state-school feel.
I too (Class of 2013) applied to a ton of the big Midwest schools (Michigan, U of I, Georgia Tech, WPI, Carnegie, etc). What really drew me to Rose, however, was the small, tight-knit community, much like FIRST. It's also been consistently ranked as one of the top engineering school in the country for the past 15 years*, and I can attest that you'd be getting a great education here.
If anyone has any questions about Rose, feel free to PM me as well. It's most definitely not too late to apply, they work on a rolling admission process.
*#1 engineering school for universities without a doctorate program per US News and World Report