We have found a huge difference in the base price of schools (before scholarships). In our experience the more expensive schools will sometimes give larger scholarships, but not necessarily enough to make up for their high price.
You probably should run the NPC on each of the schools that you are considering. If your parents are not divorced nor separated, only own one residence, and do not have a small business, farm, nor rental property, then the NPCs are usually relatively accurate. We did find some that ask for academic information and then give an estimate of likely merit scholarship awards.