Well we went through it with two kids. It’s a numbers game. Plus you want to see what merit /financial aid will look like. It can be vastly different at different schools. . I just think that both parents and their students are not well informed. I think the schools need to do a better job of it. If I knew then what I know now the application landscape would be so different. I had my poor son apply to way to many safeties due to my insecurities of him not getting into a good school for engineering. But we learned about some great programs and he definitely got some great merit at some great schools. The unknown is kinda scary. For my daughter we did play one school against another and got increased merit.
Plus yes holding out for some magical money tree or merit landing in our laps.
So many mistakes. So little time.