Thanks for the correction on the RPI medal. The issue with the RPI medal in our school is that the kid who is awarded it, nearly always has higher ranked choices they end up going to. I wish they’d give it to someone who actually wants to go to RPI. But since it’s announced junior year, most kids really don’t know at that point.
I will also second U of Maryland College Park. With your daughter’s stats she would probably get an invite to honors college or college park scholars, and see some merit money.
Find the answer from Michigan itself:
https://finaid.umich.edu/estimate-college-costs-with-u-m-net-price-calculator/
@infinityprep1234 Now that I see your child’s stats, UMD should be on your list! As pointed out in Post #41, good chance for merit and honors college. Also check out the ACES program. If interested, must apply by priority deadline of Nov .1, especially since OOS for a program that may have limited enrollment. (full disclosure - I am a UMD alumnus in math ; very familiar with their CS program)
CMU should be on your list, if it’s not already. NYU CS is also well respected. Your daughter is in a good position, since she has high stats and also has some work experience with CS.
Thanks CMU is on list
@infinityprep1234 You should do the calculator. They meet need for up to 90k, so you may still get significant aid at $123k
https://finaid.umich.edu/new-undergraduates/non-resident-students-and-financial-aid/
I’ll throw University of Waterloo out there. D16 is a CS student there now. As a coop student, every other term is spent working. The average student earns $10-$15K during work terms. They earn more if the placement is in the US. https://uwaterloo.ca/co-operative-education/why-co-op/co-op-earnings/hourly-earnings-information-january-december-2017 Cost of attendance for non-Canadians in CS is roughly $21K/term. All numbers are in CAD.
CMU and NYU (and especially NYU) are not good choices if you need substantial FA or merit scholarship.
My S is going to RPI as a Medalist. Even without the award, the NPC came out about the same.
The Medalist scholarship ($25K) pays off if you are a full pay white or asian male… and you get a good looking medal.
They might give your D a real nice package with those stats, or not. It is unpredictable but you will get what the NPC says at a minimum. Make sure you show interest. RPI is MIT’s safety, and they are getting more picky.
I’ve seen the workload for Data Structures at RPI. It is no joke ~20-25/hrs week of assignments and you need to learn C++ on your own. The 1st CS class is Python which your D would skip with her background.
Parent here who studied CS myself, manages developers at work, and 2 sons studying in college now.
We are also in NYS, one kid got into Bing and Albany/merit. Other kid Stony Brook and Buffalo/merit. Both kids turned down SUNY for privates. One is at RPI now and loves it academically. Other is graduating from Cornell and going for a Masters in Information Science.
I would suggest a couple of things.
First at a tech school like RPI, they have enough humanities to get exposure, but you wont find peers terribly interested in that. And while I think RPI CS has been a superior educational institution for undergrads in CS, there is a case for Cornell Information Science major. You can enroll in their CALS contract college, pay a NYS discounted tuition. This program is perfect for someone who wants a mix of tech and humanities. The major itself emphasizes more social sciences, and of course you can take electives in the College of Arts and Sciences. Traditional CS had lots of theoretical course that are not so practical for most people. Cornell and Northeastern also, have CS but also more practical related majors (as does RPI but at schools with more liberal arts offerings). Still, I can’t say enough good things about RPI’s program, if you compare mainstream CS programs, it is outstanding.
Personally I went to BU for CS, and schools in Boston give students incredible intern/coop opportunities.
But I went to BU long ago, and all the schools listed are very selective, apply to them all 
SUNY is great in terms of affordability, can’t beat that for cost unless you have very low income and get into a well funded school like Cornell. Stony Brook would be best for CS but Buffalo would be fine, as long as your kid graduates near the top there.
With those stats, and asumming matching other components of your profile, here are some schools to consider:
Reaches (your best options):
-UC Berkeley
-Stanford
-Carnegie Mellon
-Michigan
-MIT
-Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Computer Science pure major)
-Cornell
-Princeton
-GTech
-Harvey Mudd
-CalTech
-UT Austin
-Harvard
-UCLA
Matches (Pretty awesome options):
-Illinois (CS+Math, CS+ Stats, CS+X, etc.) → probably as good as their pure CS option, but easier to get admitted to
-Purdue
-UC San Diego (might even be a “reach” nowadays)
Safeties (also great options):
-Maryland
-Washington (might be relatively easy to be admitted to, but gets recruited very well from Amazon and Microsoft - but this might be a bit inaccurate since some companies send their employees here for additional training/educational advancement before bringing them back)
UCSD CS is much more competitive for admission than the school overall; getting into the CS major after enrolling as undeclared is not very likely.
Washington CS is not easy to get direct admission to. Students admitted to the school but not the CS major face a competitive admission process to try to get into the major later.
Thanks for the clarification @ucbalumnus
Michigan and Purdue are stingy with out of state merit money though.
OOS school does not provide need based aid or merit based aid, Michigan is 53 K, Berkeley,is 60 K, therefore even though great colleges, we can not afford them financially. Can not afford financially Teaxas at Austin, UCSD, Purdue or Washington. I have to run Net Price for Maryland. It seems we will only apply to private or very few OOS public and two in state public universities. Thanks everyone, apprecaite it as I have a better idea with your help.
@infinityprep1234 so Mich NPC gave you too little? Sorry about that.
One kid at my S NY HS got into UT Austin and got big merit. You might look into that. I was dubious, but it happened.
Michigan has gotten a lot better for out-of-state students - especially if your family income is below 90k. My family income is much above that and I received pretty good aid this year.
I’m sorry to hear that your aid at Michigan and some other schools is not enough.
@infinityprep1234 UNC Chapel Hill and UVA does provide FA that meets full need (based their own definitions of “need”, of course).
@1NJParent that is why they are in the list also besides great scholarships if nominations comes through
My son went to Univ of Rochester - 5k students, liberal arts college. You just get accepted into the university and can choose your major, that way if she changes her mind it is no biggie. He went from engineering, to math - an outstanding program - to comp sci. He’s now working as a software developer for a defense contractor. What made that program stand out is that they taught him how to think and how to translate into many different languages. They don’t teach only one or two computer languages.