Class Rank: is competitiveness of High School considered for merit aid

It’s fewer than half of US high schools that report rank anymore, so not sure many colleges take rank into account when disbursing merit aid (unless it’s for a specific scholarship that requires X rank, as noted above).

Your biggest challenge will be finding schools with a budget of $30K. That requires a very sizable scholarship, when starting with COAs of $65K+.

Has your D taken an ACT/SAT yet? I would make a testing plan (e.g., spring and summer), and prep to get a high score.

Make sure to have at least one affordable safety school, whether she would play her sport there, or not. What is your home state?