I believe that when @tsbna44 mentioned “full pay” that he was mentioning families that colleges expect to pay the full sticker price of a college, and “full pay with merit” would have been famliies that colleges expect to pay the full sticker price but that need merit aid to bring the price to meet the budget that the family is willing and able to pay.
I think this is where it is important to run Net Price Calculators. Some schools are much more generous in defining need than others, so there may be schools that would define your need in such a way that you would pay less than you would at UVM. Many of the most financially generous schools have very low admit rates, but there are certainly others that have higher acceptance rates and are still pretty generous. @ali-ice, has run a bunch of NPCs, I believe, and may have feedback on which ones were more generous for her family’s situation than others. Muhlenberg, for instance, is one that I think was pretty generous for her family. Of course, NPCs can render different results for different families based on how each school weights different financial situations. St. Lawrence (no religious affiliation) is another school that accepts a good portion of applicants that is pretty generous in defining need, at least in looking at the net prices by income on College Navigator (the feds’ website).
In terms of schools that could touch UVM in terms of cost, Tuition Exchange schools that offer full tuition awards would probably be pretty comparable in price, as the room & board costs would all probably be in similar ballparks. You may want to look at the fees, for UVM as well as any TE schools, as sometimes those can be an alternative way that colleges try and raise money, and can sometimes add up to a pretty penny. I usually find that tends to be more common with public schools than private ones because local politicians don’t want the cost of “tuition” at their public schools to be going up much, so the school will then put additional fees in place to bring in the needed revenue to keep the school going.
We’re happy to help brainstorm other possibilities for your son as well.