Yes, as others have said, OP needs to clarify what “significant” merit aid means. It’s not unusual to get 10-20K of merit aid from either RIT or URoch, and some would consider that significant, but that’s off a very high sticker price. It would be more helpful to know what the budget actually is.
RIT-wise, I felt as if OP might be looking for a more liberal-arts vibe, but of course it’s true that one can major in English. I’m also not clear whether the goal here is an ASL interpreting or Deaf Ed sort of career; OP mentioned Library & Information Science as a possible grad school path. (Of course that affects finances too, as that’s not likely to be a funded grad program.)
OP, if you can clarify the budget question and respond with your impressions of the suggestions that have been made, that would help us to refine the advice given!