Look at UAH (University of Alabama in Huntsville) too. When my son graduated in 2016 I think your stats would have gotten full tuition and housing. Not sure where they’re at now.
You MAY be eligible for financial aid at “meet need” colleges depending on your parents’ income. But you must give us a approximation or range and let us know whether they own a farm.
We do not own a farm no. And from what you said earlier, I may get dull tuition. I understand that you can’t estimate without exact numbers and such, I just don’t feel comfortable disclosing that information online.
So do you have all the USAFA stuff line up then? And as a lot of this stuff is new, are you US born and bred? First generation to university? Did your parents keep you in the dark until now about paying for college or were they also misguided about FA?
OK, so if as per NPC at top “meet need” schools you would get “full tuition”, I’m guessing they’re leaving about 15-16K for room/board/books. Focus on “meet need” schools that don’t include loans in the package (so that you can use thatto decrease EFC costs left to your responsibility).
That means:
Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Colby, Columbia, (Cornell if your income is at 75K or below),Davidson, Franklin&Marshall, Olin, Harvard, Haverford, (MIT if your income is at 75K and below), Pomona, (Northwestern if 75K and below), Princeton, (Rice if 80K and below), Stanford, (Uchicago if 75 and below), Vanderbilt, (Vassar, Wellesley WashU if 60K and below), (Williams if 75K and below), Washington&Lee, Yale.
Obviously all of these are super selective and would all be reaches. Your best shot is probably Colby, Davidson F&M, perhaps Olin (they’re a small, elite hands-on engineering school linked to Babson and Wellesley; their selection process is specific and in two rounds: round 1 is your commonapp, round 2 is a weekend where you have to respond to a team challenge and go through an interview - weekend fare paid by the college and round1 results all destroyed, you get acceptance or not on your “challenge” and interview only.) So, I’d include all 4 of them (or the first 3 if Olin is not of interest), then add 2-3 from the rest of the list. Start working on the commonapp specific essays (copy the prompts now, before commonapp goes into “reset mode”).
Not owning a farm will help.
Come on, OP has HIGH income parents but they do not want to pay.
Do you still trying to let him to apply for those “meet needs” schools? What if the EFC is 50K and where will be the “needs” under css profile?
I am baffled by the lists here. And the reaches. There must be something I am missing.
^ Originally OP said “middle class” (not high income) and many students who don’t have much information believe, erroneously, that sticker price = net cost; moreover, the definition of “middle class” fluctuates anywhere from 45K to 250K on this website… since I’d asked she run the NPC on meet need colleges listed on this thread, when OP said she thought she’d get “full tuition” I assumed she meant “at meet need colleges”.
Turns out that’s not the case, and she meant “with merit aid”. But that’s an honest mistake.
So, “meet need”/no merit colleges are out.
Is it worth it to apply OOS?
In my opinion, yes it does.
I am a firm believer that college is the best time to leave one’s state to discover another part of the country: the age makes it easier when possible (unencumbered by family obligations mature enough yet not too set in their ways, developmentally speaking the right time for independence and meeting new ways of life/thinking) as long as it’s affordable. Whenever it’s possible is key - and this student has a great safety in UNL Honors so there’s no risk in trying to find affordable colleges OOS.
@epalm18: what are your ACT/SAT/Subject tests scores again?
Of course, since OP meant “with merit”, not “from need based aid”, the list needs to be different: Depending on test scores, it’d cover UTD AES if she’s interested in STEM/Business, OleMiss Sally Barksdale Honors, ASU Barrett, UMN Twin Cities, UMaine, Temple Honors, UAH (Engineering), plus private universities that have merit aid and holistic admissions. KU and KState (KU has an excellent Honors College, KState much less so). RPI, WPI offer excellent merit scholarships to STEM-inclined girls, as does Smith.
TAMU and UT are out, but Texas Tech is a definite possibility.
Here are my ACT scores
Composite: 32
English: 35
Reading: 31
Science: 32
Math (I choked big time): 29
Also a side note, before anyone recommends scholarships with female preference, I am a male.
Ok, that helps :D…
That makes you interesting to many LACs 
some of which may offer preferential packaging.
Are you retaking the ACT?
Someone upthread asked about the PSAT: what were your scores?
(215-216 would likely qualify you for major scholarships)
I was not planning on retaking the ACT just so that I could focus on applying for scholarships and such rather than boosting my score. From what it sounds like, it may be worth trying to get up to at least a 33 though?
Scholarships mostly come from the colleges themselves, and are heavily reliant on your test scores. A 32 “unlocks” many scholarships but a 33 opens a few more.
Here are websites to explore:
https://barretthonors.asu.edu/
http://www.honors.olemiss.edu/
http://honors.utdallas.edu/cv
http://www.utdallas.edu/mcdermott/
http://aes.utdallas.edu/prospective-freshmen
https://honors.ua.edu/
http://www.honors.umn.edu/
Do you happen to know much about Rose-Hulman?
I would look at Purdue and their Co op program.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/top-colleges-for-internship-co-op-programs
Rose Hulman is an excellent school of engineering in a rather desolate location.
Purdue has almost no full tuition/full ride scholarships for OOS students. UCincinnati’s Cincinnatus is a good scholarship and UCincinnati has a topnotch co-op program.
It is worth trying to get your ACT up, IMO (having kids with a 32 and a 33 and no FA). 32 doesn’t seem to be high enough to get merit at school that would be any better than your instate, but a 32 is good for your instate regents, right? You can pay for room and board? Or commute?
What scholarships are you planning on writing for at this point in the game?
Reach schools like RH might give you a bit of merit but if the COA is still over 30K, how will that help? I call that smoothing.
Barrett honors is still expensive OOS IMO. Purdue is maybe just a match for a full pay OOS, not a merit option. Uminn honors has ACTs of 34 plus, just admission to unminn for eng is just a match, again, there might not be any merit unless they still have the top 10% option and that will leave a significant COA. Average ACT to u minn CSE was over 31 last intake.
Also, Rose Hulman has plenty of highly accomplished applicants and too many male students, so zero incentive to provide you with good merit aid.
Your best bet is to find LACs with Engineering programs: Lafayette, Bucknell, Trinity College CT, Union, Clarkson. If you can add an interest in CS, you have way more possibilities.
Applying to LACs that offer merit where being male would give you a little “boost” would seem useful.
For UMN, if you’re interested in CS, I’d advise applying for the BA in CLA (special scholarships there). Lots of good internship possibilities in the Twin Cities.
WPI may be a good bet too (it’s right outside Boston, so if you want a big change of pace and culture compared to rural Nebraska, that’d be it :p) Tulane (esp.Engineering, CS was discontinued after Katrina and has only recently been rebuilt) would also be a big change of pace and culture.
Tulane won’t offer any real scholarships to a 32. It might be a match for full pay/tiny merit award, otherwise it gets tons of high stats kids looking for merit.
@MYOS1634
I will certainly look into LACs! I would be willing to look more into CS or even software engineering as well. If that would open more doors, I will definitely explore that more in-depth. I was afraid of that with Rose Hulman too, a desolate location sounds quite a bit like where I am at now too though 
@Sybylla
Perhaps some of my current projects that I mentioned earlier could help a bit? I know my ACT isn’t a 36 and such, but I didn’t think that ACT would be the sole decision factor in merit aid?
UAH last year offered housing along with full tuition with ACT 34 and high HS GPA (4.0); full tuition for ACT 30 or above but that may be instate - they may differentiate with stats for OOS. They spell everything out on their web site www.uah.edu
There are a lot of high stat students at UA due many factors.
Nephew went to Iowa State and graduated ChE, but he was in-state, and it was a good place for him. Not so sure about OOS and how their scholarships would work or compare.
UA is pretty hard to beat for many students on many factors if the can gain a full tuition scholarship; plus they offer the automatic $2500/year for engineering/cs for these high stat students.
UAH is a ‘sister school’ to UA - along with UABirmingham. All are under one system but each have their own President and focus. UA is the state flagship. UAH is the smallest by # of students, but heavy in many areas due to tech town. UAB has a medical focus (med school and a number of professional schools - dentistry, PT, OT, etc) but also has engineering.
If one can gain a four year school scholarship and financial aid package, attending CC for first two years (and living at home so saving on housing) would need to be weighed out with costs for finishing 4 years under the two scenarios.