You don’t need balance. You need one affordable, assured school that will excite you. Kids choose safeties over reaches all the time. Both mine did - not for money but in your case, it is money.
If school A excited the student and is more budget friendly for the family than B and C, why even apply to B and C?
If you want more schools, find some that will be less expensive than A since that’s your assured and it seems as if budget is a concern.
In essence it seems like B and C are time wasting.
Of course, we don’t know budget, stats, interest and the list but you can do as you are - but it’s inevitable the student will end up at the safety or at the reaches that cost less.
Is there any way that they’ll end up at the matches ??