My one kid and two of my nieces wanted large flagship state schools. Although after visits and researching other school types, that was still what they felt was ideal for them.
Our state system, SUNY, did offer Buffalo which comes in at a reasonable (to us) full price of about $28k these days for first year students but room and board costs can be greatly mitigated by cheap hosing available off campus. He liked the big city setting over the more bucolic state schools like Penn State and West Virginia, etc. Still his list included a large contingent of flagship state schools, most all OOS.
He was accepted to all of them despite lower than average test scores for them, but not a dime in merit money was he offered. Other kids did get smatterings if awards but, really, significant money is had to get. These days, theSe OOS state Flagship schools run $50-60k and rarely give much financial aid to even those OOSes who are needy.
The big awards are highly competitive. Higher test scores are important for your DD to be in the running for them. I can tell you that my youngest with a 34 ACT and 4.0 unweighted didn’t get full ride type awards to Alabama and Temple, but nothing from schools like Michigan, and about $6k from Penn State. Looking at who got the big awards from some other big name state schools, highly unlikely he would have gotten much from them.
As for student loans, beyond the Direct Loan amounts ($5500 freshmen year), you’d essentially have to take out those loans. IMO, as it should be. I do not believe that a teenager fueled by the momentum of the college search should be making commitments for hundreds of thousands of dollars. If, you, her parent, want to make that gift, go on ahead. Co-signing is really just legally making the student liable for repayment along with you. You can take out the PLUS loans and they are forgive if you or student die and don’t hamstring a young adult. You can make the financial decision for yourself based on YOUR financial situation and savvy.
We took those PLUS loans for our oldest and started repayment immediately, while he was going to college. It was a long tough go. Not having onerous student loans has made life a lot easier for our kids. It’s a huge stress for many young people.