As far as I know, not a very high percentage of Asian American families here are willing to shell out a lot of money to send their kids to Dickson or Wake Forest (unless they receive a huge amount of scholarship so that its out-of-pocket cost is comparable to the cost of a flagship public college. But this is likely because among the circle of my friends (most of them are somewhat older and came to the US when only those among the truly academic elite class over there could come to the US. Also, they could be not as wealthy as their “counterpart” back in their country of origin in Asia – however, most of them were graduates from a very good university like Chiao Tung University in Shanghai, Tinghua or Beijing University; after they had received a graduate degree in the US and then worked here. Many of their kids seem to go to one of the better UCs (if they live in California) or the flagship public university if they live in another state (other than possibly NE, where the parents tend to be more obsessed with an even more prestigious college. Just thought of this: I could be one of such parents even though I do not live in the NE.
OP, If the parents of your GF happen to know Apple, you could tell them that the CEO of Apple was a graduate from Auburn University in Alabama, which is most likely ranked lower than UA.