CS college recommendations for high stats student seeking merit

WIparent4
Tue, 04 Jun 2019 16:15:18 +0000

my rising senior son interested in CS, anticipated NMSF, ACT 36, GPA 4.o uw, 7 AP courses so far, full pay family seeking merit. Have looked at a variety of rankings for ideas, but this field is out of my area of expertise & would welcome both suggestions of strong programs offering significant merit and factors to assess when comparing programs. How far down the rankings can you go & still consider it a strong program? Will apply to UW-Madison in-state. Also going to look at a few Canadian schools as we are dual citizens and U of Toronto for eg appears to be one of highest ranked global programs; however it is a huge school in a big downtown & isn’t appealing to everyone. Will also visit McGill, any comments on that option?
Thanks in advance!