Most liberal arts colleges like the ones I listed, even those in the NE and west.
-If you’re considering USC, I’d advise UCLA as well since they are pretty similar in terms of rep and rank. I’d put them at low reach.
-Also, consider GeorgiaTech (reach), UMich (reach), and Purdue. Purdue is easier to get into but still an excellent engineering school
-I wouldn’t count on OOS public for aid as much. Research it, but as far as I’m aware they give more aid to in-state students and there isn’t much for OOS
-Santa Clara can give amazing aid packages
I sent several questions to Georgia Tech and got a prompt answer! Sharing here with all CC members:
- They don’t have the “direct admit” concept. "If you receive admission to Georgia Tech and you have put Computer Science as your major on your application, then you are also accepted into the Computer Science program. "
- "We do offer the Provost scholarship which awards 40 freshmen, non-resident students an out-of-state tuition waiver for eight semesters. However, it should be noted that you must apply early action to be considered for the scholarship. "
Not sure that’s 40 out of how many though.
Seems like admission to GT comes with direct admission to the major.
It looks like there are about 1,000 or so non-Georgia residents for each class of undergraduates. That means that that about 4% of them were awarded the Provost scholarship. The early action requirement may reduce the competition pool somewhat.
Okay, so here’s a good example of a college spread I think would benefit your son. This list is 15 colleges. Out of the colleges I added from your original list, 4/5 of them will either waive your application fee or don’t have one in the first place. I didn’t touch your reach school list except to add Williams (which will waive the application fee), but I think you should get that list down to four or five schools instead of the eight it is now. Those eight are very costly to apply to, so you should re-think what attracts you to the school. Last year it cost me over $100 to apply to Cornell after I sent all my test scores, the application, and the CSS. This isn’t a very wise investment especially if you need a lot of financial aid and are not a household making under $65,000 for a three person family. Cornell won’t give you tons of aid. I’ve heard not so great things about UC Berkeley’s packages as well. I am a current student at Grinnell (so I’m a little biased) and I think your son would be a great candidate for our CS program. I’ve heard nothing but good things about our CS department and am even considering taking a class this upcoming semester after hearing so much about a particular professor. I could probably find you a CS major here to talk to your son if he’s interested. 
Message me with any questions. Finally, you don’t need as many safeties as you had. Pick two to three that you know have decent CS depmts and great FA (Whitman is a good example of this) and move on. You’re shooting for the matches not the safeties and you should always have more matches than safeties or reaches. I also think this list gives you more balance between LACs and large universities, so he’ll have diversity of choice when the time comes. 
Reach schools:
UC Berkeley, MIT, CMU, Stanford, Cornell (the big 5 for Computer Science)
Rice
U Southern California
Williams
Match schools:
UW
RPI
Lehigh
Northeastern
Grinnell
Safety + potential Merit
Santa Clara
Whitman
@starjoy8 Thanks for the notes. I’ve heard about Grinnell a couple times now and really want to know more about it. Could you please PM me the CS contact and I’ll have my son ask him/her about the program? Thx.
@bogeyorpar will do. You’ll have to give me a couple of days to find someone though as I’m not personally good friends with any CS majors and I want to get you someone who knows 100% about it. I’m sure it won’t take to long though as the Grinnell community is pretty welcoming. If you do end up visiting, I could also meet up with you to answer any social questions your son may have.
@bogeyorpar I found your son a CS contact!! Please PM me with whatever mode of communication you would like to connect with them on is and I’ll give my contact your son’s information.
All good info, one small correction: UW will be a reach for CS for anyone - many would put it into the Top 5 CS schools over Cornell, who I haven’t seen there before myself. Yes, you can do a non-direct admit, but there’s no reason to take that risk if you have other options IMO.
If your son is willing to consider liberal arts colleges in the Midwest, in addition to Grinnell, you might want to consider Macalester (St. Paul), St. Olaf (about 45 minutes from the twin cities) and Oberlin (about 45 minutes from Cleveland). I cannot vouch for the CS programs at all three - I know that St O is strong in math and have heard that Oberlin’s CS department is reputable. All offer merit scholarships in the 20-25K range. Macalester has the advantage of being in the Twin Cities, where internship and job opportunities should be plentiful.
this is patently incorrect about Ga Tech. There are some scholarships that pay part or all of TUITION ONLY and not all students qualify, or can meet the criteria to maintain it. Additionally, while the admit rate for Instate vs OOS is higher, but it is by no means “easy” to get into Ga Tech these days.
To get an idea, just google “cs ranking” on a mobile device.
People also search for:
CMU, MIT, Stanford, Gatech, Caltech, California, Cornell, Washington, Texas, USC, UIUC, Princeton, Rice, UCLA, Columbia, UCSD, Penn, Harvard, Duke, JHU, Yale, NW, ASU
These results are ordered by most searches.