Michigan State/Ohio State Merit Aid

Safety schools are really only safety schools, if you are accepted, they are definitely affordable and you would happily attend them.

Reach schools for admission can also be reach schools financially.

You should run net price calculators on the college websites to see if they would be affordable, before you apply.

It seems like Ohio State and Michigan State being OOS schools, would only be affordable if you get a big scholarship, of at least full tuition.

They cannot be considered safety schools for that reason because these are competitive scholarships you are applying to.

If you apply to MSU and tOSU and ASU you should hopefully have at least one good affordable option. Then you can apply to one or two reach schools, provided you qualify for need based aid, because those schools might not give merit at all.

You don’t want to end up like many students, with only one acceptance in April, that you either hate, or is unaffordable.