As AI and machine learning are not amongst my areas of expertise, I also used this rankings source and only selected AI (which included machine learning): computer science open rankings.
Although @S_Bh has anecdotes of this happening, I haven’t heard of schools that only meet financial need providing significant tuition discounts to students who do not have financial need but that they really want. Thus, my suggestions are related to schools that indicate that they provide merit need.
Before going down that path, however, has your family run the Net Price Calculator at any schools? If not, I would suggest they run it at Princeton. If you don’t qualify for need-based aid at Princeton, you’re unlikely to receive need-based aid anywhere. But if you do qualify for any need-based aid, then
I excluded the California publics from my categories as those are a special beast beyond my expertise but focused on schools that were on your original list and adding a few more based on the CS rankings and the opportunity/odds of receiving a significant scholarship. Apart from the auto-qualifying full rides from National Merit Finalist status, all other full rides should be considered high reaches. But I do think you would be competitive for them, and that would mean that nobody in your family would need to take out any loans.
Extremely Likely
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U. of Central Florida: It no longer details what the package would be like for out-of-state students (source). I would reach out to an admissions officer to see what packages were like last year for students like you and whether they anticipate any changes in protocols for this admission cycle.
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U. of Texas – Dallas: Its NMF package includes tuition & fees, $8k/year stipend, $3k/year for on-campus housing, plus study abroad and research stipends. UTD National Merit Scholars - Hobson Wildenthal Honors College
Higher Probability
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Arizona State: Its scholarship estimator was malfunctioning, so I don’t know what the price would look like, but I didn’t see any full rides available.
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North Carolina State: Aim for the Parks scholarship (its full ride)
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Ohio State: Aim for the Stamps Eminence (its full ride)
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U. of Maryland: Aim for a full Banneker/Key scholarship (a potential full ride)
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Rensselaer Polytechnic: I’m not sure what their max scholarships are. I’d suggest reaching out to admissions to find out (source).
Lower Probability
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Duke: Aim for Robertson scholars and A.B. Duke Scholars (full rides)
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Georgia Tech: Aim for a Stamps scholarship (its full ride)
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Purdue: Unless you think you might qualify for the Lilly Scholarship (overcoming socioeconomic or educational disadvantages), which provides full tuition, the biggest scholarship hear appears to be $16k (source). But since it has a lower sticker price than other schools, I think it’s reasonable to keep it on.
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U. of Florida: No longer gives NMF scholarships to out-of-state students. It appears as though the max award for OOS students is $20k/year which would bring the price to just over $20k/year (source).
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UIUC: Aim for a Stamps scholarship (its full ride)
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U. of Texas: Aim for Forty Acres (their full ride) and for the Turing honors program in CS. Under Forty Acres it recommends that applications be submitted by October 15, though they will be considered through December 1.
These schools don’t offer merit aid, so if the Net Price Calculators are coming back as full pay, I would not apply to these schools as you’d be looking at $280k+ in loans to attend: Stanford, CMU, Cornell, MIT, Yale.
I would give strong consideration to replacing schools without merit aid with Rice (TX) and/or Washington U. (MO).
Another school that I think would be a likely admit for you is U. of Rochester. I thought it used to have at least a full tuition scholarship available, but I wasn’t able to see it on its site (source). This is another school you may want to reach out to an admissions officer to get additional clarity on the state of merit aid here.
I didn’t see any merit scholarships larger than $25k at Michigan. Considering its high price tag, I wouldn’t prioritize this school over other options.
U. of Notre Dame’s Stamps scholarship covers tuition and fees, but doesn’t cover room and board. It does have a full ride if you get nominated by a Western Golf Association club, but I’m not sure if you’d have an eligible connection for that (source on scholarships). Thus, with the hard-to-get scholarship still bringing the price to close to the top of your budget, I’d be tempted to nix this one.
Northeastern’s general merit scholarships go up to $28k/year, but it didn’t specify the max amounts for National Merit Finalists (source). With a high sticker price and relatively limited (if any) opportunity to bring that price down to a non-loan budget, I would consider nixing this one.
So the first thing is that you need to find a school that you’re extremely likely to get into, that is extremely likely to be affordable without any loans, and that you would be happy to enroll in and attend for four years. Start by looking at UTD and see what you think of it. If you think you’d be happy there, then you’re golden. If not, we keep looking for other options. Any school that you wouldn’t prefer to attend over the sure thing schools should be nixed. That would be a good way of narrowing down your application list.