@Momto2girls Reading the rest of the replies you have received here and rereading your other thread, I realize now that I misunderstood your actual question. You are obviously becoming well-versed in how things work and are recognizing that what you are actually asking for, institutional grant aid that remains fixed and allows merit to stack on top of it in order to reduce parental contribution, doesn’t exist. That is the reason for the magical unicorn comment.
The only way merit will cut into the parental contribution is if it is large enough that it exceeds your need. @Mom2Collegekids is 100% correct. She laid it out clearly.
Some schools will allow merit to stack on top of merit but they are not the type of schools you are asking about. No financial expert will be able to find that bc it doesn’t exist.
Fwiw, the suggestion of Ole Miss and Croft in your other thread is a good one in terms of meeting financial and academic major goals. A Chinese flagship at an affordable price is huge! I wish we could have found an affordable Russian critical language flagship.
Merit is the only way your contribution is going to be reduced. Forget the idea that outside scholarships or institutional scholarships will stack AFTER institutional grants. Not happening.