[Joe Ross]

My recommendation would be to try not to specialize too early. At this point, robotics may be what you're most familiar with, but there's a lot of things out there. Get a degree in Computer Science, and try out a variety of classes. If you find something else you're interested in college, that's great. If robotics is still something you're interested, get a masters degree from a university that has specialties in robotics (eg Carnegie Mellon).

In the long run, your undergraduate university won't be as important as your graduate university, so you can make your mom happy and stay close to home.

I went to a community college for money reasons, and then transferred to a private school. Overall, I saved around $30k. My student loans are almost payed off, compared to many of my coworkers who still have a long way to go.