@katliamom The student is looking for merit aid. There aren’t a lot of public universities that give NO merit aid awards to OOS students.
@yellowsky the most important things…get the best SAT or ACT scores you can possibly get…and get the best GPA you can get…and take a challenging HS course load.
Then…you need to make sure you apply to colleges that GIVE merit aid awards. Some do…and others do not.
You can look at this thread…start at the beginning because folks got a little off topic at the end. This was written in 2017…but it will give you some ideas anyway. Check each college website.