We loved LSU. Well my daughter did which is what matters. On the tour they pointed out they need to get aggressive because those who apply also apply to Bama, Ole Miss, and Miss State and they were losing. Perhaps they have a scholarship estimator ? I checked …they do.
I hear great things about UK - specifically engineering (not your field). They have a scholarship table although I think it’s not automatic.
On their website a 3.8 and 32 shows $19k for LSU.
At UK it’s not auto but she can apply for the Presidential Scholarship with a 3.5 and 31 test (not super scores I don’t think) and get free tuition.
Has she looked at WKU ? In Williamson County at least, we get a discount.
When you say she could do the rigor in hs but didn’t want to - I don’t care where she goes to college, that is going to need to change.
As for Charleston and I’m sure other schools have their chill places…while it’s pervasive to parties unless you get into Honors, my daughter loves to walk to the Battery for stress relief…about 20 mins away. I worry - single girl, city crime but she says there’s lots of tourists. Hopefully she can find that soothing walk wherever she goes.
Private schools might ding her merit wise on lack of rigor but while many kids change and grow with independence, many kids also struggle with the pace and amount of work in college - especially a subject like anthro which will have a lot of reading and writing as will many other social sciences. Hopefully she can adapt.
Best of luck to her.