@Dustyfeathers, Wellesley does not offer merit money, only need based aid. The other women’s colleges offer excellent merit.
University of Arizona gives automatic and generous merit for grades and test scores
@Dustyfeathers - Wellesley’s Financial Aid office is wonderful, and will work with students/families who have complicated financial situations.
Maybe bigger school than you are looking for but Florida State University also offers great merit in your stat range - OOS waiver, and likely Freshman Scholarship could get you into the $16k range COA.
I got some really good merit aid with a lower gpa and same act at SMU in Dallas. Made my yearly coa around 40k without loans.
apply to umass amherst as a safety. You can afford it. You might get honors college, which is a very nice experience. I think it helps to indicate a major that is under-enrolled or a “boutique” major. My kid got into CHC (with max merit aid OOS) with high SATs and a good GPA (but which only put her at top 25% at competitive suburban high school) because kid was headed into a small major that UMass Amherst is tops in the country for.
“apply to umass amherst as a safety.”
I agree. Coming from Massachusetts, the schools that we found that were $30k or less were in-state publics, and some universities in Canada (all if you have Canadian or dual citizenship, some otherwise). We did find merit money at out of state public schools, but not enough to get the cost down to $30k.
I know a lot of very good colleagues who graduated from UMass Amherst.