Their prices may vary for you. Run the net price calculator on each college’s web site to check what its financial aid and net price may look like. Remember, you can only borrow $5.5k first year (increasing slightly later years), so you need to know what your parents will contribute. Also, if affordability for a given college depends on a merit scholarship, reach/match/likely/safety depends on the scholarship, not admission.
Also, there are public LACs which may be relatively lower priced and not that selective. See http://coplac.org/members/ . Examples:
University of Minnesota - Morris
Truman State University
New College of Florida
SUNY Geneseo
Sonoma State University (in-state for you)
Fort Lewis College (WUE discount)
Also be aware that many LACs look for some level of demonstrated interest. Visits are not happening in this covid world but I’d at least get on the mailing list of any school you are considering and even do a virtual tour if possible.
“Are there some private liberal arts schools that are cheaper than others?”
As others have mentioned, some LACs have very good need based financial aid but no merit based financial aid. Some other LACs have merit based financial aid but little or no need based aid. Some have both.
The NPCs should predict need based aid. Whether they will predict merit based aid will depend upon the school. Also, if your parents are separated or divorced or own a small business, farm, or rental property, then reality in terms of need based aid is usually quite a bit worse than is predicted by the NPCs.
There are a few states with public LACs. The closest one where we live is however a long way away for you and is not very selective (our daughter and you are probably both a full point in GPA stronger than would be needed to get in, and 400 points higher on the SAT).
There are also options outside the US but they would be a long way away from you (we live in nearly the opposite corner of the US from you).
Given your excellent stats I would expect that looking for merit based aid would be hopeful at some LACs.
A word of caution on lower ranked LACs that still cost $60k and up to attend. Many will have very low endowments and probably depend on making their budgets through a high percentage of full pay or near full pay kids. The NPC’s today may not be reflective of the economic environment for these schools for the class entering 2021. I’d do some research on the economic strength of the schools you are seriously considering.
Needing financial aid makes schools more of a reach, I think. The more generous the financial aid is, the more people who need it are likely to apply and competition among those students is tougher. Slightly lower gpa or test score may be acceptable for a full pay student but maybe not for a student seeking aid. D20’s LAC meets full need with no loans but this past admissions cycle, the percentage of students receiving aid decreased as did the average gpa. It doesn’t meet most of your preferences, though, so I won’t recommend it.
I have tried to do some research about the economic strength of various schools especially less prestigious safety schools, but it is hard to tell how economically strong they are. Do you have a suggestion for a resource that determines how economically strong an institution is especially during this pandemic which will cause countless schools to go out of business?