[EricH]

The one and only suggestion I would have (regarding the Ivy League schools) is this:

You're going for ENGINEERING, not LAW (or other similar items). Ivy League schools are not known for their engineering schools, whether or not they have them. (Harvard does, but is very selective because it's very small.)

Try telling him it's probably good enough for Cal Tech or MIT, neither of which is Ivy League to my knowledge. If he doesn't recognize those, they are generally regarded as the biggest-name engineering schools in the country. (Cue angry letters from other folks making that claim.)