If your family owns more than one house in the bay area, it is unlikely that 1) you will qualify for Questbridge (needs a family income below $65k/year), and 2) unlikely that you will receive much in the way of need-based aid as the equity from one of the bay area homes will count as an asset that could be used to pay tuition.
Thus, if those two assumptions are correct, then you are likely looking for merit-based aid to meet whatever the budget is for college. Make sure your family determines what the budget is and see what the NPCs say.
Some schools with more “prestige” than others that offer merit aid include:
- Washington U. (MO)
- Duke (NC)
- Vanderbilt (TN)
- U. of Miami (FL)
- Washington & Lee (VA)
- U. of Richmond (VA)
- Wake Forest (NC)
- Villanova (PA )
These schools are competitive to extremely competitive to get into, and the likelihood of getting merit aid at them is quite slim (this table offers merit aid data for many schools). But if having a Big Name is important to your family, these are some schools that you may want to give greater consideration.