One way to channel your folks’ interest in Stanford would be to have them put their financial info into the Net Price Calculator and see what the projected cost there would be. Stanford is one of the most generous schools in terms of need based aid, so this will give you a “best case scenario” number which is a good first step in figuring out which types of colleges will work for you financially. Estimate Cost : Stanford University If Stanford’s net price is affordable, then try USC’s NPC and see if that looks affordable too USC Financial Aid : Net Price Calculator
Secondly, if you’re thinking about combining CS with social sciences (poli sci, IR, etc.), you might consider whether you really want CS (i.e. a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of software architecture and so on) or whether something more in the data science, data analytics, info science sphere might fit your interests better. It’s still computational, and you still learn to code, but it’s more focused on computational approaches to the study of other fields (including the ones that interest you) and the “big data” associated with them. This major at Stanford (the better to discuss with your parents, haha) https://datasciencemajor.stanford.edu/academics/undergraduate-ba-program is a good example.
I’ll move over to your other thread to discuss specific colleges. But it will be important to think about majors before applying to the CA publics and other schools that admit by major, because applying to CS can turn matches into reaches and reaches into super-reaches… but not applying to CS can mean that there’s no real chance of switching into CS later.
I’ll save specific brainstorming about schools for your other thread.