I have a similar socioeconomic background and got into Michigan, as well as Wisconsin and Penn State. I was at Michigan from 2006 to 2010, but selectivity has definitely continued to rise, and the Engineering school was already difficult to get into (I was in LS&A), even though my understanding is that enrollment has actually grown somewhat over the past decade while the population of college-aged students has fallen.
That said, Michigan actually seems to favor out-of-state students somewhat because they have to pay full tuition and aren't eligible for the need-based aid program that allows instate students to get free tuition from families making <$60K with some discount up to ~$150K (I forgot the exact numbers so I may be a little off on that).
Given that classes could be online this fall anyway, he could wait until Michigan makes a final decision and start college there or Wisconsin in January, instead....
Regardless, there's a lot of opportunities in electrical engineers throughout the electricity sector, especially, of course, and that's only going to increase with more renewables and energy storage systems, advanced energy management systems, along with electric vehicles. I do mostly analytical non-engineering work, though I did my graduate degree in Engineering Management and work with engineers.
Does he have any idea what he wants to do for his career? To be sure, I got into the clean energy space somewhat by accident, and didn't really know what I wanted to until I got into it.
