I second Miami of Ohio- they have been very generous with my students and it is one of the “public ivies”. I would also look at the “colleges that change lives” which some have been mentioned. The website is www.ctcl.org and they have been very good with merit for my students. I would swap out Georgia Tech for Emory, it hasn’t been as generous to my students. Although Georgia Tech is not the most generous with merit, my recent students are getting merit and things like study abroad at in-state rates, co-op earnings are helping make it affordable especially since it is about $20K to $25K less than Emory. Plus the size of Georgia Tech fits OP’s requirements with 12K undergrad.
Baylor gave my student who has the same stats as your son a very generous merit scholarship (undergrad is less than 15K) University of Dallas was also very generous with the same student (merit of around $140K).
If Northwestern is on his list then he could add Cornell. Cornell is not a match or safety for people, but his chance of getting into NU and Cornell are very close, so having two on his list would increase his chance of getting into one.
If Dartmouth is on his list then he should consider Colgate, Hamilton, maybe Lehigh and Lafayette. I went to Colgate. My sister loved the vibe at Colgate so much, she chose Dartmouth over Yale many years ago.
" Highly selective schools don’t seem to offer as much merit aid because they don’t have to. " - Most of the tippy top schools have shifted to only doing need-based aid. I see it as more of a shift in priorities more than supply/demand.
If your son is serious about a career in medicine, I would do my utmost to keep costs low for the undergraduate degree low, should you want to help him with medical school costs. Of your list of reaches above, you might consider cutting those that don’t offer even the possibility of merit-based aid (I’m assuming you don’t qualify from need-based). So Harvard, Dartmouth, Northwestern, JHU (there may be 2 merit scholarships there). The others offer a limited number of extremely competitive merit scholarships, if your son wants to give it a try and see what happens. Tulane seems less reachy than the others on the list, although demonstrated interest is important.
A public university with a strong honors program where your son might qualify for a full tuition award (or in state tuition) would be a sensible choice. Many good options already mentioned - Alabama, UM-TC, Wisconsin, maybe add tOSU or Arizona State (Barrett Honors College).
Case Western also has a direct to med school program called PPSP that you might check out. Regular merit awards go up to 32K, roughly half the cost of attendance. There are also some full tuition scholarships that require a separate application. Demonstrated interest important here too.
Congratulations to your son for his fine record of academic achievement!
In a very similar situation as you are! Has he considered Boston University, Wake Forest, Bucknell, Lafeyette, Lehigh, Dickinson, GW? Sorry if I missed his preference for size; clearly the suggestions above run the gamut on size and location. I would think all of them would be considered matches for him.
As far as safeties go, we’ve been looking at schools that have roughly a 60% admit rate, where my daughter’s stats are above the 75th percentile. Many of them wouldn’t necessarily be her first choice but they have something that makes them appealing to her (weather, school sports, merit aid) so that she would be excited to go there if she didn’t get any other acceptances.