[Chris Hibner]

The University of Michigan has a joint degree program in Mechanical Engineering and Design, although that might not be exactly what you're looking for. If you are looking for something more toward mechanical design (i.e. mechanism design), the program at the University of Michigan was one of the mostly highly regarded programs around when I was a student there. The program was constantly being audited by guest departments from other universities.

The only big issue is that the University of Michigan is very expensive - especially for a public school. However, you get what you pay for, and U-M Mechanical Engineering department is currently ranked #2/#5 for undergrad/grad studies by US News and World Report.

As for extra activities, many of the students mentor local FIRST teams, and then there are tons of other design/engineering activities to get involved with such as Solar Car, Formula SAE, Human Powered Submarine, etc. The Solar Car Team has won 5 of the last 10 North American Solar Challenge races.