It’s nice to want to go ‘away’, but someone has to pay for it. Your title asks “how do we find schools with the best merit aid?” The first way is to be realistic that you are going to have to give up some of the things on your ‘want’ list, and the first is going to be location. None of the big merit aid schools are in the Pacific NW or northeast. Temple used to be a ‘merit’ school, but no longer is. She’s going to find a lot more money at home, in Kansas and Missouri, at Utah, Montana, Idaho, or in the southern states.
She has very good stats, so if she’s willing to go to Ohio or Indiana LACs, there might be some money.