<p>If your parents are able/willing to pay up to $60,000 a year, then that’s fine. Just make sure that they know what the full costs of college may look like.</p>
<p>I doubt many colleges will allow you to do research until you’ve proven that you have the basic knowledge necessary. How many classes have you taken in the CS/Physics fields so far? If you’ve taken several college-level classes then maybe you’d be able to do an independent study project your first semester, but that’s not extremely likely.</p>
<p>Even top schools in the areas of AI and theoretical physics don’t call their departments that - what you need as an undergrad is somewhere with a strong physics program. Grad school is where you’re going to get into the really cool stuff. Try using the SuperMatch function here on CC again. I just stuck in any major including the word “physics” and your ACT/GPA, and came up with a long list of reasonable schools to look at. After you find that list, you can look at the specific departments and see what areas professors are doing research in and what types of facilities they have available.</p>