<p>There are schools that give merit aid to a majority of students such as Beloit. There are threads with schools with good merit aid and they do exist. It takes a very flexible kid to go that route. Sadly, my two would have preferred State U. to a school selected in that manner. Their loss. Beloit is a very good school.</p>
<p>We were lucky. Kids qualified for need blind/meets full need schools, and the schools did. It was still tough, but we managed.</p>
<p>For a girl, the women’s colleges, particularly Smith and Mt. Holyoke that have merit money as well as generous need based FA, are a great deal and less competitive than co-ed schools of their caliber.</p>
<p>Grinnell is another school for a kid with stats like the OP’s daughter that gives out merit aid. I think it would have been a wonderful choice for at least one of my kids, but neither was willing to go that far from home.</p>