“We didn’t quite go that far, but similar. D applied to schools we felt had a very good chance of significant merit aid. She understood that if the aid didn’t come through as expected, the school would likely come off the list. We applied to no schools that didn’t offer merit - which basically cut out the top elite schools for us. It made life much easier.”
This is exactly what we did with our D18 last year. Got an amazing package at Ohio State ( OOS ) and never looked back. Our son is finishing 11th grade and is currently looking into the ifs and whats of the process and the formula will not be different come Fall. He will probably have slightly higher stats which might create other options although not sure anything will change. He dreams of UNC, UVA, UT, and Wisconsin and I already told him to start dreaming of other schools. Not happening! LOL!