Answering some questions:
Questbridge/$: Family income qualifies, don’t know what they think of a grandparent investment account, but I found a way to fill out a contact form on their site and asked. I think the money is in some kind of investment account, not sure if it’s an official education one or not – just that the grandparent opened some kind of fund in the stock market somehow for each kid (I have another kid 1 year behind this one). I trust them. That said, I think the schools on Questbridge (at least a couple I checked) give good financial aid anyway, so I’m not sure it matters a ton in making a preliminary list to research?
Trans student policies: This is maybe a separate reason not to do any sort of binding programs like Questbridge or early decision – at least that gives her a bit of time to pivot. Maybe a good thought that non-Ivy League schools aren’t such big targets? This is a giant terrifying rabbit hole with no solid answer and potentially no safe way to exist in this country at all, depending on how things go. I think policies are a bigger worry than students – I think finding welcoming young people to hang out with is probably less hard than ensuring insulation against, say, a school being forced to give up names of all their trans kids to be added to a list of violent extremists. Also why I’d rather avoid non solidly blue states.