strong CS program in NY/NJ/PA?

Is that including the ~$5500/year federal student loan or are you taking a PLUS loan? The SUNYs are great schools. Have you looked into Stony Brook?

SUNYs are very affordable in and out of state.

Is this student a high school senior NOW??

He is still a junior…will be applying next year. we are in NY.

thank you all for great recommendations. will start researching all these options

he is in top 10% of his specialized NY high school

McGill in Montreal is a good CS program. What does he want to do with the major? My son looked at RIT which offered quite a bit of Merit money, but he was looking for something more Academic (research based) and RIT appeared to be more geared toward Vocational placement. If he wants to enter the workforce right after undergrad, it is a pretty exceptional program. They even have a “house” dedicated to Computer Science. Look it up to read more about it. My son ended up at University of Maryland, which is still close to the area you mentioned, they also offered quite a bit of merit to him and are building a brand new facility that looks awesome and will open for your son’s freshman year.

Univ of Maryland College Park
Univ of Maryland Baltimore County
Pitt
Lehigh
Rensselaer
Virginia Tech
TCNJ
Hofstra (lots of merit $)

Is it $25-30K per year, or for four years that you can pay/borrow? I was thinking Pitt, but based on what I’m seeing for merit this year, you’re probably looking at $15K in merit per year (maybe less-merit is based on the college you apply to). That would leave you with $15-20K per year in tuition & fees. Pitt does seem to have a good co-op program in place, so your son could do that for 3-4 semesters and earn quite to apply to tuition when he’s taking classes. If he wants to study abroad for a year, he could do that through one of their exchange programs and you would get in-state tuition for those terms.

$25-30K/year should be manageable

If $30,000 is manageable, you should be looking at the SUNY schools that offer this major…as well as some of the others.

They are your instate public universities…and totally meet this price point.

University of Alabama? Check out their merit scholarship program.