Not anywhere near an expert.
"Autistic" is a very very broad term.
A friend's son is autistic. He is non-verbal, occasionally physically combative, has Down's syndrome also. He will never go to college.
My nephew has Asperger's. That's technically autistic. He has a slight lisp, a slightly odd gait, and has difficulty reading emotions. He graduated with a degree in statistics from an Ivy League school and has a master's degree in statistics from a highly regarded university.
The comments below might be reasonable or unreasonable depending on where your son fits on the spectrum.
Most universities now have "differently abled offices" where they have support staff to help provide various accommodations to students who need them. These vary in quality and in what they're named. I'd suggest meeting with these offices when you go on college visits. In the case of my youngest, I was surprised by the variety and breadth of ideas and offerings for them to deal with their misophonia. The school came up with half a dozen ideas and options that my miso kid didn't even realize were possible and they were delighted with the support.
You can start now working with him to advocate for himself and work on developing his independence.
With any college kid, how far away from home is a pretty big factor in my experience. Sounds like you want to focus within one direct short plane flight or a couple hour drive from home or closer. The closer they are, the more feasible support from home is. It may not be necessary, but it's nice to have in the arsenal.
I'd start trying to collect input from resources around your student who know him and know autism and know college. The accommodations that might be most helpful might only partially overlap with the accommodations you think would be most helpful. High school guidance counselors, any medical professionals (his pediatrician?), the "differently abled office" resources. Maybe there are some books on the subject?
For ideas on schools, you might try Big Future, which is the College Board's college search tool. I used it and liked it for my three kids when they were looking. My middle son was looking for schools similar to your son; some options on his list that might also be worth looking into for your son would be:
1. Rose-Hulman Institute (IN). Hard to get into, but small and very engineering focused. Maybe too far away.
2. Case Western Reserve (OH). Hard to get into, but has good engineering. Has a broader array of degrees. Maybe to far away.
3. Dordt College (IA). Small. Religious.
4. Kettering (MI). Expensive.
5. SD School of Mines (SD). Commuter campus. Cheap. Good reputation. Cold winters. Apparently not much to do.
6. Calvin College (MI). Religious.
7. Michigan Tech (MI). On Lake Superior, so I assume very cold.
8. U MN Duluth was also on my kids' list.
All of these are in your general area, have good S:F ratios, have engineering of some kind (my kid was looking at mechanical, electrical, and chemical). So they might at least bear looking at online.
I'm giving you a broader number of schools because I think it is good to start broad so that when you apply your criteria, you'll still end up with several schools to apply to. My son's process started with 54 schools that were in the ball park, narrowed to 20 just based on Big Future, visited 7, applied to three, got into one.
Nowadays you can get a lot of feel for a school online, but visits are very very good if you can at all do them.
With enough effort, you might find a school that is a very good fit. My son got his IB diploma. Most schools didn't really know much about the IB program, but one did. They had an IB applicant coordinator who we met on our campus visit, who asked about his IB stuff - senior project, etc. His application fee was waived because he was an IB candidate, and he was awarded a decent scholarship for being an IB graduate. He also got a nice academic scholarship there. So in addition to that being the only school that accepted him, it was actually a very good fit.
You'll know a good fit if/when you find it. It'll either be the feel when he's on campus, or the financial aid / scholarship offer compared to other similar schools will be unusually good.
Specifically on the engineering stuff, I heartily agree with you that CC is not a good path. Yes, it can be done, but it probably doesn't save any time or money overall for reasons you've alluded to.
He might want to look at mechanical engineering too. It's a very broad and very marketable degree. Very difficult to get through, though. Out of three very intelligent and capable people in my family who considered it or tried it, none of them succeeded. But obviously some students do it.
Financial stuff:
Your son might be able to get a National Merit scholarship. It's too late for him to take the PSAT as a sophomore, but you might have him take several practice tests between now and next fall. If he takes the PSAT and scores in the 99% plus range, he might make it into that program. There are a few subsequent steps, but the junior year PSAT score is quite frankly the hardest; after that it's pretty easy. If he gets to be a National Merit Finalist or even Semifinalist, many schools will offer automatic scholarships, all the way up to full tuition for four years. (I have four NM Semifinalists or above in my family, including two NM Scholars which is the top final tier.)
Look for scholarships that are specific to engineering and even specific to autistic students. They're probably out there, and your son will have a much better shot at getting those than the broad, national, open-to-everyone scholarships. Have him continue to look at the university he attends - that's even narrower and his chances are even higher.
Scholarship essays are usually not the biggest part of getting scholarships. Usually it's test scores, financials/FAFSA, degree path, grades. And if an essay is required, in most cases he can and should have it read by others before submittal for grammar, spelling, content, etc. English teachers at his high school are good resources for this. Make him do the writing and correcting and editing part, but I think liberal feedback in multiple rounds of review is perfectly fair. Unless for some odd reason the scholarship application rules state otherwise - something I've never seen.
If you're close to FIRE, you might be able to FIRE and have a low taxable income, which opens doors to FAFSA financial aid and FAFSA-based scholarships. I FIREd when my younger two were in high school and this strategy helped them.
Happy to answer questions here or in PM on any of the above.
HTH. Good luck.
