General thoughts:
- Run the net price calculator on each school. If not affordable on need-based aid, student needs to aim for merit scholarships there. This may move the school into a more difficult admissions classification (e.g. "match" to "reach").
- Be careful about designating a school as a "safety" if it uses a lot of subjective criteria in admission, particularly "level of applicant's interest".
- For an actual safety school, she should consider whether being an academic outlier at the top end of the student academic range at a small school will be satisfying for her. Big schools may have many such outliers around, or honors programs and honors courses to help them find each other, but there may be too few at a smaller school.
- For all of the academic areas of her interest, she should compare course catalogs and schedules to see what is available at each school, and how often each course is offered.