My DD is a rising Junior and we have started the college search. We live in GA. Like many students on this forum she has high GPA, test scores, rigor and so forth. She wants to major in Biology with a pre-med track and ALSO at least minor in English as her greatest talent is writing. Money is an issue for our family. We also prefer she not travel much over four hours away for her undergraduate experience. What school are out there for her? We have visited UgA (it’s so so big) but has programs she is looking for and would be affordable. We have visited GA Tech which she loves but they don’t have the English component. She loves Vanderbilt but I can’t see us affording even if she got in. We have a visit to Furman scheduled but money is probably not gonna happen. Still think it is worth a shot because you never know. We will also be visiting Mercer but have heard it becomes a ghost town on weekends. Emory is on the list but money will more than likely be an issue. Any other schools in our area I don’t know about? We will visit Clemson Honors next year as well. I have never done this and feel I may be missing some great schools I simply don’t know about. Thank you for any input.
Try Florida State. Depending on your ACT/SAT u can get significant financial aid. Relatively compact campus.
Thank you. That school is just at four hours away so drivable for us. Still a very large school but we will check it out. I am not familiar with Florida schools at all so I didn’t even know it was that close. Thank you again.
Certainly take a crack at Vandy. It’s wealthy. If she were accepted, I’d think she’d have better chances of sufficient aid there than other schools.
What about Rhodes College in Memphis–terrific, beautiful LAC. I’d think she’d get some money but not sure if it’d be enough.
https://www.rhodes.edu/content/about-rhodes
The other one that comes to mind is the University of Richmond. Stunning suburban campus, near a very vibrant down Richmond (RVA). It does have a southern preppy vibe, if that is a plus or minus. I believe it claims to meet full financial need. But keep in mind it might be “need aware” in admissions (although I see it claims not to be) and might expect you to pay more than is possible/comfortable. It’s more than 4 hours away, so that might be an issue.
https://www.richmond.edu/about/index.html
https://financialaid.richmond.edu/prospective/need-based/index.html
Good luck, have fun in the search. It sounds like you are focusing on fit, which is great.
You might look at public LAC’s like College of Charleston and UNC Asheville. (I would say William & Mary too, but their OOS price is not that much less than a private U.) Tulane has has merit aid for kids who are high-stats, but not as high-stats as you need to be to get merit at Vandy.
When it comes to private LAC’s, as a general rule it will be a good idea to target schools where your daughter is in the top 25% of the pool of admitted students. Two reasons for this: 1) to maximize her ability to earn the high GPA she will need to get into med school and 2) to maximize the merit aid you will need, to have money left to pay for med school. 
Obviously there is a sweet spot to be found here; there are schools that would not be challenging enough and do not have the reputation to back up the GPA. But there are plenty of great LAC’s with strong reputations, where your daughter could land in the top quartile and get a substantial scholarship, have a wonderful undergrad experience where she excels in her pre-med coursework and is cultivated in her writing by top-notch faculty, and end up in a strong position as a high-stats, debt-free med school applicant.
Rhodes is a great suggestion and is one example of such a college. (Especially if your daughter is interested in pediatrics and/or cancer research, as there are research and shadowing opportunities at St. Jude’s available to Rhodes students.)
The “Colleges That Change Lives” list doesn’t include every good college in this category, but it’s a good place to start. https://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/ If you look at all the CTCL schools within your radius, that will give you a good idea of the possibilities.
UGA sounds like the most solid option if she doesn’t want to go too far. Also, depending on her grades and SAT/ACT scores, she could qualify for some very generous scholarships at Alabama, Auburn, Ole’ Miss and Mississippi State. That could easily solve the money issue, and they’re not too far from GA.
You have to calculate your EFC and then determine the maximum you can contribute. As others have said, some very expensive schools can be great deals for a subset of students, high achieving, low income.
Now in order for this to be the case, they use what you SHOULD be able to afford, not what you CAN afford. For example, if you are a high earner, with no college savings, and heavily leveraged, with poor cash flow to divert to college, it’s going to be an uphill battle.
Sewanee-The University of the South. Davidson College in North Carolina offers a lot of merit aid & has a beautiful campus & setting with excellent academics.
However, without more specifics, such as SAT or ACT score, class rank & GPA, it is difficult to recommend schools.
Have you looked at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville? We toured in April and were very impressed. We are looking at GCSU, Mercer, Wofford and Furman as our top 4.
Agnes Scott College offers some merit aid.
If she likes Furman after your visit, make sure her guidance counselor nominates her for the Furman Scholar Award in the Spring of her Junior year if she meets the qualifications. It is an automatic $5000 per year. Don’t discount the private LACs based on starting price tag because often the merit awards will make them price competitive with the in-state publics.
I’ve heard UMiami offers pretty good aid and scholarships for merit, maybe that would be worth looking into? Not sure on how far Miami would be from where you live though, but a good school nonetheless!