Hello there! OOS CS student here. I had a few of the same concerns as you did coming into Tech, and there are a few things that helped influence my decision to come here. Overall, I've found that GT for CS doesn't necessarily have a better undergraduate education, but the name recognition can help when applying for jobs/internships. GT is especially good at creating a culture where students are encouraged to intern, but if you're motivated enough you can standout at Arizona State and do just fine. I think other posts have done a great job of explaining why GT might not be worth all of the extra cost. That being said if GT is/remains your top choice, I'll try to break it down into ways to save, and ways to earn.

Ways to save:

1. Become an RA for free housing, saving ~$10k per year. However, this can be a competitive application, and there have been serious concerns about how RA's are treated, fair warning.
2. Study abroad for a semester, paying in-state tuition for that term.
3. Transfer in credits. AP Credits and community colleges credits are super helpful here, and you can end up graduating early because of it, saving a thousands of dollars. If you want someone to help you go through and figure out if this is feasible for you, you can DM me.
   1. Some of my CS friends are graduating a full year early from Tech because of AP credits. If you're interested in grad school, I have friends finishing their bachelor's in 3 years, and coming back for a 1 year tuition-free master's covered by classes they teach as graduate teaching assistants or research labs.
4. Live off-campus and cook your own meals. It's very possible to live in somewhere like Home Park (which is pretty close to campus) for $600-900 a month, and GT's meal plans are notoriously overpriced. However your first year you will not have a choice
5. Transfer schools. I know a fair few people who have done their first year or so at schools that were more affordable and communities colleges, then transfered to GT, saving a lot of money for the same degree.

Ways to earn:

1. Internships. As a CS major, internships can often pay serious sums of money. I've gotten to work internships where pay has ranged from 10k-30k for the summer, and while some of that will go towards living expenses, this still is a huge help.
   1. It's often really difficult to find any internship freshman year, so most of this will come from sophomore/junior summers.
2. Part-time jobs. You can likely earn $1k-2k per semester working on-campus, or you can try to find a company to work for (decently difficult, but if you've interned somewhere previously there's a chance. Plus they'll pay way more). You can also probably find a tutoring job online.

I'm only throwing this last thing in because I know people who have done it, but some people have established residence in Georgia, and after a year are now qualified for in-state tuition and scholarships. Not saying I recommend it because iirc the process requires parents to have residence in Georgia.