<p>no no no im not saying theyre bad im applying to most of the ones you listed, im just thinking about how public schools often dont offer a lot of aid to oos so it might end out being more expensive in the long run ... but yeah thats a good list too :D</p>
<p>If you're open to the idea of a few years in the military, the service academies are free and mostly pretty good at CS. And "nerdy" would not be the word I would use to describe them.</p>
<p>Since you're right that privates sometimes give better aid than out-of-state publics...look at Columbia, Purdue, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Dartmouth.</p>
<p>those schools are out of my league (except for purdue which im applying to :D)</p>
<p>and the only service academy i was interested in was West Point but I found out about the application process there too late so im not eligible</p>
<p>You've obviously considered the UCs since you are from CA, but I don't see what you have against them. Top tier schools for a fraction of the price of out of state schools. If you're so concerned about cost, you would look into them.</p>
<p>Also, have you looked into Cal Poly SLO?</p>
<p>yep yep yep, the cal system ****s my gpa which will make it impossible to get into the good UC's, and i dont wanna go to cal poly i dont wannnaaaa</p>
<p>Maybe consider going to a CC and transferring to UC school, might be a good option considering price is an important factor.</p>
<p>yeah thats actually not a bad idea broken_symlink i think that will be my backup plan</p>