Unless your child is chomping at the bit at the idea of a 5-year college plan with 2-3 co-ops, I would say definitely UCSB. And I’m the mother of a Northeastern grad 
Just to clarify, LBad has some personal beef with New Jersey/New Jersey schools in general.
If you don’t mind 8am classes, you can get a 150 person version of the linear algebra course that Ynotgo’s son had. When my son took that one, he had the smaller size, but there was at least one other lecture time with the bigger size that quarter.
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@youcee is right. Since my son is in HS, he couldn’t take morning classes at UCSB. So, regular college students will have a lot more scheduling flexibility.
My son was put on a UCSB departmental email list for CS students, and he has been impressed with the number CS opportunities they send word about.
Very few honors programs offer tangible benefits that amount to anything more than small perks - it’s something many colleges use as an ego boost to attract applicants. It does mean you’ll be surrounded by smarter students than the general population often, if that’s a big consideration. You’ll get slightly more focused advising, some housing perks, registration priority at SB, etc.
Make sure you also look at any additional curriculum requirements - it can actually be worse for some in terms of letting them take the classes they want outside of their major, particularly for STEM majors. I know that I actually would not want to be in the honors program at Northeastern because of that.
Long story short: Honors is generally not a big deal unless you highly value those perks, except for a few exceptions at certain colleges.
@chansu99 and why did you feel that was relevant to mention? And Stony Brook isn’t in NJ lol.
@FieldOfDaffodils you’re still better off staying in-state. You’re probably eligible for CA state grants as well.
@LBad96 Don’t worry I don’t want to argue or anything, and your whole story was really cool and inspirational, but it’s clear that you harbor ill will towards New Jersey. That’s fine, but I think your experiences are not quite the same as the ones most have had around here
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Northeastern is certainly not worth the additional 30K. Since you are from CA, I would lean toward UCSB but I see the attraction to Rutgers Honors College and the new facilities are beautiful, though I wouldn’t necessarily base my decision on that. Both have their issues; UC with overcrowding and larger class sizes, though my understanding is they do a good job with T/A break out sessions. Rutgers’ campus is very spread out and of course far for you to visit. Nice benefit is it’s a quick train ride to NYC! Does your daughter want to go that far away? I would recommend visiting for admitted students day.
@Fishnlines29, I’ve heard that the new facilities at Rutgers are wonderful too. But it’s only for the first year, right? Because after that they go back to using regular facilities. We’re less concerned about the campus being spread out. It’s the quality of education and her potential peers that are most important to us. If you have any insight into that I’d appreciate it.
Yes, we are planning on visiting Rutgers.
@FieldOfDaffodils Yes, that’s true - 1st year only and other dorms I’ve seen are rather drab thought lots of kids choose to live off campus with friends - there are some cute apartments in the area. The quality of education/peers is going to be very comparable at both schools. Really, it’s splitting hairs. You will get an excellent education at Rutgers and there are plenty of employers in the area recruiting on a regular basis. Rutgers is a much larger university in a small city with twice as many staff as UCSB. UCSB of course is a beach town. Class sizes overall will tend to be smaller at Rutgers than those at UCSB Both unis are rated in the Top 100 and you cannot go wrong with either, but UCSB is rated higher by most rating groups.
Honestly, I see no reason to choose Rutgers over UCSB unless your daughter finds a specific program of study or professor that she is particularly interested in. Or, if she wants a new experience. My daughter was insistent on going to college in a big city far away from home to get a different perspective on the world. East coast/West coast attitudes are different and she might like exploring a different area of the country - it’s an easy shot to NYC, Philly, DC, etc.
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Thank you for all the great input. Not surprisingly, after a few more college acceptances our decision has become more complicated. The final tally is as follows with net cost after scholarship (where it applies):
Northeastern: CS, no scholarship
University of Arizona: CS, no scholarship ~$52K
UCSB: CS, in-state, no scholarship ~$34K
Rutgers: CS honors with scholarship ~28K
UIUC: CS+stats, no scholarship ~45K
U of Maryland: CS, no scholarship ~47K
U of Delaware: CS, no scholarship ~47K
Stony Brook: CS, scholarship ~31K
Daughter is seriously considering only U of Arizona, UCSB, UMd, UIUC & Rutgers. Location isn’t a huge consideration. Would your suggestions change with this updated data?
What college GPAs are needed to renew the scholarships?
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On CS and fit alone, UIUC and UMD are clear frontrunners. I think Arizona is eliminated easily - expensive and no advantage in CS or otherwise. Rutgers has the advantage of honors and being the cheapest and still solid in CS. UIUC is considered a top CS school, so if you can afford it, that premium is worth it to me. UMD is very strong in research and specifically cyber security, if that’s of interest. Between those three, I think various fit factors and the like could make a good case for all three. Purely based on CS department general strength in research/reputation, it’s UIUC >> UMD > Rutgers.
@ucbalumnus, I don’t know that off the top of my head. Will look for the information and get back to you.
@PengsPhils, interesting that you haven’t included UCSB in the calculus. Is that a reflection on the quality of their CS program?
@FieldOfDaffodils Nope, that reflective of me just flat out missing them in the post. Thanks for checking! UCSB would probably fit in around UMD. I do think that given the huge class sizes and complications of the CS major, given the other great options, UCSB doesn’t really win out here personally. The only scenario I see them as the top option in is a pure financial value to CS program assessment, with financials very heavily weighted.
When it comes to CS “quality”, all of these schools will teach more or less the same CS program. The only differences are class sizes, any special programs (like the one UMD has for cybersecurity), and any big advantages in industry connections (UIUC).
Agree that UIUC and UMD are a bit higher rated, but not sure it’s worth the extra $. At this point, with the Rutgers Honors scholarship, I would choose them (I would even place them a bit higher on the scale than ucsb and better package).
@ucbalumnus, at Rutgers you need a 3.0 to keep the scholarship.
3.0 is not a huge risk (unlike 3.5), although it is somewhat of a risk.
@FieldOfDaffodils For UCSB, did you include the cost of UCSB’s insurance in that $34K total or are you going to waive it and use your own? I see they are listing $3.3K as the cost for next year, so if you are able to waive that you could save some money. The waiver process is pretty fast and easy as long as your plan meets their minimum guidelines.