I live on the east coast and California is very far away, I am going to major in Computer Science and I don’t know if I should strongly consider Californian schools because of how far away they are.
What is your budget?
What is your home state?
Since you posted in the UC forum, I am assuming you are considering applying to the University of California system?
Yes, distance/location is an issue for many students but I would say that the main reason many applicants do not apply to the UC’s are costs.
As an Out of State applicant, you will be expected to pay around $65K/year to attend any of the UC’s. They offer little to no financial/merit aid to OOS applicants. Also the top UC’s are very competitive especially for CS majors.
In this time of the pandemic, being closer to home makes sense for many students, so if you have concerns regarding distance, then there are plenty of East Coast schools where you could study CS.
Do these schools fit in your budget?
Do your parents have any geographic restrictions?
Most of the CA publics (UC and CSU) have solid CS program but are absurdly expensive for OOS students. There are also several privates that also have solid programs and offer sometimes generous merit aid that can make them a compelling option.
Without your stats its hard to advise beyond that.
I have a 1350 SAT, 3.7 uw GPA, 4.58 weighted GPA.
UC’s are test blind this admission cycle. UC GPA uses only 10-11th grades for the a-g courses and since you are OOS, you get extra weighting only for AP/IB classes taken during this time. Here is the UC GPA calculator: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Post all 3 GPA’s. Which schools are you considering and can you afford the UC’s with little to no financial aid?
Santa Clara, LMU and USD are 3 privates that are worth an ap for high stat OOS CS students.
good luck.