(I originally posted this in the Parent’s Forum, but recently discovered this subforum and thought this would be an appropriate place to repost the thread. Hopefully some of you find it helpful!)
For some background info: I had a 4.0 unweighted GPA with a fairly rigorous schedule and several APs, 2390 SAT, National Merit Finalist. Heavily involved in competitive speech (state + regional awards), a hefty amount of volunteer work with a local nonprofit, work as a history and English tutor, participation in drama.
I started out sophomore year where it seems most Los Angeles teenagers start out: looking into UCs. I thought I would apply to all or most of the UCs and end up at UCSD or perhaps UCLA. Then I toured Berkeley and UCLA the summer between sophomore and junior years and hated them. Don’t get me wrong, they are both excellent schools, but the sheer size and anonymity of the schools was extremely off-putting. I began to gravitate towards smaller liberal arts colleges like Williams, Pomona, and Haverford.
At this point, I had not looked into costs at all. Bombarded with the message that “you don’t have to worry about cost because we have financial aid!”, I naively assumed that finances would not be a problem. This is where College Confidential saved my behind. I stumbled across this website one day and after reading all the financial-shut-out horror stories, marched over to my parents and (politely) demanded they run the net price calculators and decide exactly how much they would be willing to pay for my college.
Well. Our EFC came out to around $50k/year at the most generous schools and full-pay at others, and my parents decided they could afford about $25k/year. Of course, this was generous of them, but it was still something of a shock to realize that many of the schools I had been looking at were not even remotely affordable. I was, and still am, very debt-averse and really hated the idea of student loans. So I started looking at colleges where I would be awarded significant merit aid.
There were a few other factors that were important to me: small (<5,000 undergraduates); co-ed; wide variety of majors; more conservative politically; West and Midwest locations preferred over South and Northeast. You can read more of the advice posters gave me here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1552379-midwestern-colleges-for-a-california-girl-p1.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1552379-midwestern-colleges-for-a-california-girl-p1.html</a>
My research strategy was basically to read through the Fiske and Princeton Review guides several times, putting sticky notes on liberal arts colleges that offered sufficient merit to bring the COA down to about $25k or less (based on scholarship listings on their websites). I ranked the schools based on how large the scholarships were, how likely I was to receive one, and of course on the desirability of the schools themselves.
My final acceptances were:
Centre ($21k merit, invited to compete for Brown full ride)
Denison (full tuition National Merit scholarship)
Hillsdale (half tuition merit + additional named scholarship = full tuition)
Rhodes ($22k merit, invited to compete for more)
Santa Clara (half tuition, invited to compete for full ride)
St. Olaf ($25k merit)
Wheaton IL ($10k merit, maximum award)
I will be attending Hillsdale College this fall. I had a wonderful visit there and loved all the students and professors I interacted with. (“Found my people” to use CC lingo.) The school is conservative, but not draconian or narrow-minded. Thriving Christian presence, but not an officially Christian school. Very, very challenging academic environment with a fabulous liberal arts curriculum. And all for a price tag of only $12,000 each year for room, board, and books! I couldn’t be happier 
If you have any questions about my merit strategy, the particular schools on my list, or why I chose Hillsdale, please don’t hesitate to ask!