Your assumptions match what we’re seeing for S20. We’re in PA. He’s getting $20-30k year in merit plus honors programs. No FA. These are private schools ranked in the 40-100 range.
I suspect he’ll attend one of our state flagships for cheap with merit or we will up the budget which is $35k/year.
The 2 schools that we would up the budget are probably worth it. We can tell he’s excited about one of them but he’s trying to stay low key. He’s frugal.
His stats are higher but not elite higher. A 1500 SAT seems to be the starting point for top scholarships.