Although this is a bit confusing, would it be fair to say that maybe your parents can pay $50k/year total, which would be about $25k/year for you and $25k/year for your brother @G3timo? For now, I’m going to assume that’s the case with my recommendations. Additionally, it looks like you prefer medium to large schools, so I will keep that in mind with my recommendations.
Have you investigated the Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP)? Missouri participates, which can get students discounted rates at some midwestern schools.
Schools that could make budget (assuming $25k, but some schools here are as low as $13k, and you could compete for some full rides at others) include:
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Kansas State: About 15k undergrads. You would receive the Missouri Match Tuition Program (source), giving you in-state pricing, leaving you with costs slightly below $21k/year. Offers through a doctorate in Computer & Information Sciences.
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Missouri State – Sprinfield: About 18k undergrads. You would receive the Board of Governors Scholarship ($5500 toward tuition + $1k on-campus housing credit, and auto entry to Honors College with a $1k study abroad voucher). You’d also be eligible to compete for larger scholarships. Your costs here would be about $13k/year. Offers through a Master’s in CS.
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Missouri S&T: About 5500 undergrads. Your grand total would be $13,062 here as the estimator indicated you’d qualify for the Bright Flight, Groundbreaker, and Trailblazer scholarships, the last of which is for first gen students). You’d also be able to compete for additional scholarships. Offers through a doctorate in Computer & Information Sciences.
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North Dakota State: About 10k undergrads. The MSEP tuition rate is $9504 (source) and other scholarships may be awarded. With room & board, costs would be under $19k/year. NDSU offers through a doctorate in CS.
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Southern Illinois – Carbondale: About 8k undergrads. You’d receive $5500/year in merit aid and would be eligible to compete for a full ride (source). So your costs here would be less than $21k.
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U. of Kansas: About 19k undergrads. You would receive $16k/year in merit aid (source), bringing costs down to about $23k. Offers through a doctorate in Computer & Information Sciences.
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U. of Minnesota – Duluth: About 8800 undergrads. Through MSEP, your tuition would only be about $600 more than in-state tuition (source). I suspect that you may be eligible for additional scholarships as well. But worst case scenario, costs would be a little under $25k. Offers through a Master’s in CS.
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U. of Missouri – Columbia: About 24k undergrads. You’d receive the Chancellor’s Award ($7200) and might receive the Bright Flight (up to $3k), or other scholarships, too. Worst case (only Chancellor’s), you’d be looking at a little under $16k.
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U. of Nebraska-Lincoln: About 19k undergrads. You would receive $18k/year in merit aid (using the estimator as directed by UNL’s MSEP page), bringing your costs down to about $19k/year. Offers through a doctorate in Computer & Information Sciences.
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U. of Wisconsin – Milwaukee: About 18k undergrads. The MSEP tuition rate is $13,638 (source) and room & board would make it about $25k/year. You may be able to receive additional scholarships as well. Offers through a Master’s in CS.
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U. of Wisconsin – Whitewater: About 9400 undergrads. The MSEP tuition rate is $11,014 (source) and room & board is listed as less than $8k, so you could attend here for about $19k, and perhaps even less if they award additional scholarships. Offers through a Master’s in CS.
Schools that came out above budget (but mentioning should others be thinking of them):
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Iowa State: About 25k undergrads. You would receive $11k/year in merit aid (source), bringing this school down to about $27k. Offers through a doctorate in CS.
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U. of Arkansas: About 26k undergrads. You’d receive a 90% discount on the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition (source). This would bring your costs to about $27k/year.
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U. of Iowa: About 22k undergrads. There’s no specific amount of merit aid you’d receive, but scholarships would stack (source). Perhaps run the NPC to see if it asks for academic stats? But with sticker price coming close to $44k, I’m not optimistic that you will get as good of a price here as at some of the other schools.
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U. of Kentucky: About 23k undergrads. You’d receive at least $12,500 in merit and could compete for larger awards (source). That would still leave you with costs of about $35k.
Missouri S&T is such an awesome school and giving you such an awesome deal that it’d be hard to walk away from that one. But you can get a quality education at any of these schools.