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I second aiming for some of the top LACs. Colleges like Knox and Butler are good, but the quality of financial aid declines sharply as one moves down in selectivity, and merit money often isn’t much help; the typical $10-15K scholarships do relatively little toward a $50K price tag these days, and institutional merit scholarships often replace financial aid grants rather than loans or self-help portion. </p>
<p>For example, Knox meets the full need of only 25% of its needy students, and 50% of Knox students are more than $27-30K in debt at graduation. Conspicuously Butler fills out every section of the CDS except financial aid. Evansville, also suggested by zobroward, meets the full need of a mere 20% of its needy students. These are hardly what I would call “amazing” options. </p>
<p>Considering the OP has such a good record (except for the M SAT) and needs a lot of financial aid, I think she would be much better off at some of the [SAT</a> optional colleges](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest) – Bowdoin particularly comes to mind (generous and loan-free), but also places like Conn College, Bryn Mawr, Trinity (CT), Hamilton, etc., all of which have great financial aid. Though it’s not test-optional, I think she’d stand a fighting chance at Davidson also, which like Bowdoin is rather generous with financial aid and loan-free.</p>