Most schools have l research.opportunities. You simply need to ask. A higher pedigree school doesn’t necessarily mean they have whereas others don’t. On the other hand, more students may want them there making them more competitive.
Don’t say budget isn’t a concern but you need partial FA.
Talk to your family. College can be $80k over four years, $400k or anything in between. How much can they afford? Even if it’s $400k - how much do they want to afford ??
Clear that with them now. Too many say what you do and find out later theur parents got sticker shock. But have them run the NPC because they might qualify.
As I showed you Penn State is $65k plus and likely with no merit - are they willing to pay ?
Finally - are you expecting further schooling ? They need to budget for that too.
When you say this - “I am looking for financial aid and would love to get some, but it isn’t much of a dealbreaker for my family - we need to know if you qualify for any because if not, then you seek it via merit.”
With your stats, there would be a lot of merit opportunity - but not at Yale and Vassar etc bcuz they are need based aid only.
Or they might (your folks) $40k at Wooster is better than $90k at Vassar.
An actual budget figure and a running of NPCs are steps 1 and 2 really b4 anything else.
Thanks.