@Calliemomofgirls thank you. Your response is lovely, thoughtful, and helpful.
On paper, husband and I love school B. It is comparable in many ways to school A. But, the merit award was a shock. We applied to the school sight unseen and have not visited. We are trying hard to arrange a visit and hope corona virus will not impact those plans. But school B is far away and seems scary solely because we have not been there and no one in our circle had heard of it (but it is a good school that is one of the girls schools that comes up occasionally on CC).
School A we had an outstanding visit. It is easier to get to. We had heard of it before applying and know people who have been there. It feels like a “safer” bet. But the more we dig in and learn about School B, the more we love it. I truly think Daughter will choose School B … she is really feeling the love and researching all their programs. It’s just that School A has been “The One” for months and the surprise scholarship has rocked our world in a wonderful way, but we are trying to not make a decision only on money, but on what is the best choice for our whole family.