How much does your family feel comfortable paying without taking out loans? I would consider that your budget and avoid loans if at all possible, especially since your grades and test scores are very high and would get you significant merit aid at a number of universities. (Merit aid is money that colleges provide for highly qualified students that it wants to win over to try and influence them into attending their institution. It has nothing to do with financial need and would not negatively impact your chances of admission.)
Computer science is a very in-demand major, so much so that it is an “impacted” major at many universities. Frequently the GPAs and test scores are significantly higher for successful applicants to CS than they are to the rest of the college as a whole because there are not enough CS seats for the number of students who want that major. (And by significant difference, CS SAT scores might be 150-200 points, or more, higher than the SAT scores for the rest of the university.)
Extremely Likely (90+%)
- U. Alabama – Huntsville (this is a big tech city, especially for the aerospace industry)
- Georgia State (a good CS program at a large university in Atlanta, one of the fastest growing metros and the headquarters for a lot of big companies)
Likely (60-90%)
U. Texas – Arlington (a lot of California tech jobs are moving to Texas…particularly the Austin area, but also in Dallas and other areas…there are some who are calling it the new or next Silicon Valley)
Possible (25-55%)
- U. Texas – Dallas (ditto all TX comments from above)
- U. Massachusetts – another strong CS program, but a better chance of admission
- U. Minnesota – strong CS program and has merit aid designated specifically for international students
Unlikely (less than 25%): These all have strong computer science programs, are need blind for international students (which means that applying for financial aid won’t affect whether you are admitted or not), and will meet 100% of need as calculated by the university for international students. They’re not medium to large universities in California, but these are arguably the best universities in the U.S. And my reasoning is that if you’re going to apply for unlikely schools, it’d be nice if any schools where you are admitted would be affordable for your family.
- MIT
- Princeton
- Yale
- Harvard
- Dartmouth
- Amherst
Public California schools are difficult to get into for out-of-state student (and many in-state students). UC-Berkeley and UCLA are unlikely for all. Computer science is probably unlikely at all U. of California campuses and is probably a bit better (but probably still unlikely) at the Cal State campuses (San Jose State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or Pomona, San Diego State, etc).
University of Southern California, a mid to large private university, is also unlikely but you might stand a better chance of admission than at the publics as it is not required to limit its out-of-state population. They also have merit aid that they give out, though I don’t know if they give it to international students (check with the university).