My daughter will be a HS senior, 4.0 and 35 ACT. She does not want to try for Ivy because we can’t afford to travel much and she doesn’t want to be that far from home and not be able to visit (we are in MN). Her preferred school size would be between 2K and 12K students. We have visited Carleton and St. Olaf in MN, UW-Madison (too big) and Drake in Iowa (not as selective, I know, but she did like it.) We haven’t gone to Grinnell yet - she wishes it were bigger. We are also thinking Loyola, University of Chicago and Northwestern. She will probably major in biology, biochem, engineering or math. Money is going to be a big factor when she chooses where to go - she’s going to need some hefty grants for those schools! Anything I am missing? Chicago is probably about as far east as she’d want to go.
Will you qualify for need based financial aid? If not, U Chicago, Northwestern and Carleton don’t give much (if anything) in the way of merit aid. What do you need your net price to be?
What about Lawrence in Wisconsin? Would she come to Ohio? Oberlin is a slightly bigger LAC that I believe gives merit. Kenyon also has some merit (but it’s very small). Denison and College of Wooster are known for large merit awards.
Bradley University offers merit. Agreed that some of the schools you list aren’t known for large merit.
Would she be interested in University of Minnesota - Morris (for liberal arts including math and biology) or South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (for engineering)? Both are relatively low cost to begin with, so (depending on what your budget actually is) she may not need a lot of scholarships to make them affordable.
Of course, with smaller schools, she needs to check the course offerings in her intended major(s) to see if they are sufficient for her academic goals.
Second Denison for merit aid. WUSTL gives some big merit awards but it is a very competitive process but your daughter has nice stats so might be worth trying!
Some suggestions in the Midwest:
-Case Western Reserve University
-Marquette University
-Bradley University
-Miami University Ohio
-College of Wooster
-Missouri University of Science and Technology
-Saint Louis University
-Illinois Institute of Technology
What about Macalester? I respect your daughter’s geographic limitations, but at the same time would urge her to consider Smith and Mt. Holyoke even though they’re out of her zone. Their merit aid is very generous and they have excellent science programs. Your daughter has excellent credentials and may be able to negotiate a travel stipend.
For Engineerng, how about Rose Hulman in Indiana? (2200 students) U Chicago does not have an engineering major. Northwestern and Wash U do. Wash U has an extensive totally separate application process for merit scholarships and is competitive but if you want merit $$$, it’s a necessary process. We took our D to Wash U’s “Engineering Day” session last summer when she was a rising senior and she liked it very much. It gives prospective students an opportunity to visit each department and talk to professors, current engineering students, and the career placement office. Also she had her interview at that time as well.
What about Notre Dame? Expensive, though and I’m not sure about merit aid. My Ds best friend will start there this fall, had a 35 ACT and got quite a good package, but I shouldn’t generalize too much because each student brings something different to the table. 
There’s also DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. They are known to be generous. No engineering though. @momofzag I agree with you on Lawrence in Wisconsin. My oldest D was offered quite a nice package from them when she was applying.
@twincitiesjbj When you say “hefty grants” what exactly does that mean? What percentage of the cost can you afford?
Too late to edit my post above…
I understand geographic limitations, but the Ivies are very generous with need based aid. You should run the NPCs to see where you fall. Filling out NPCs in general for all the colleges your D is interested in is a good idea as many folks here on CC will tell you…
Case Western Reserve University isa little bit more east (but still midwest).
@twincitiesjbj Anything you are missing? --You need to state how much you can afford to pay each year for four years if you want useful suggestions. ‘Hefty grants’ isn’t specific enough. Are there younger siblings? What is your projected FAFSA EFC? AGI? Self employed?
@TiggyB62 Technically, UChicago does have an engineering major, and since OP is interested in bio/biochem, Molecular Engineering seems right up her alley.
OP, have you looked at Kettering in Flint, Michigan? It’s a little further east of Chicago, but it’s an excellent school for STEM.
If money is a factor, Case Western (great focus on pre-meds and engineers) is a good match. It is very well known for huge Merit offers for top caliber kids.
While Miami (OH) is also well known for great Merit offers, it is in-state public and very expensive for OOS. Not sure how much OOS kid will get there, Case (private) way end up a cheaper place for top caliber kid.
Both schools are great but very very different and are for the very different type of personalities.
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Carleton and Grinnell are LACs. They don’t offer engineering. They do offer 3-2 programs, where you transfer after three years to compete the engineering degree. For example: https://www.grinnell.edu/academics/areas/physics-astronomy/3-2-engineering
Miami U. (OH) does give significant merit aid to top OOS students (One of my cousins, not from OH, is a current student–got a great package).
Another smaller selective school with engineering and excellent merit aid is U. Tulsa. (Not close, I know, but within same distance as some other suggested schools).
What about St Cloud State (with honors program)
Milwaukee School of Engineering,
U N Dakota (also honors).
All three are near Amtrak stations, IIRC, simplifying home visits a little, maybe.
I think Minnesota is in the Midwest Student Exchange Program, might be worth your time to google that up.
3+2 programs are not a good idea if merit scholarships are necessary for affordability, since merit scholarships for transfer students tend to be less available. In any case, relatively few students who start college intending 3+2 actually transfer to the “2” school.
Thanks everyone! Yeah I realized last night after posting that I probably needed to be more specific. I am a bit confounded by all of this. We didn’t go through as many decisions/questions with my older son because he found the right school for him easily, he didn’t have the scores my daughter does, and tuition happened to match our EFC exactly.
Here’s our “stats”: our son’s EFC was $18,000.I imagine it won’t change much with our daughter - maybe go down a little because we will have 2 in college (my son just finished freshman year). We have two more kids at home. We are hoping our daughter can attend school for about what my son is paying (borrowing) - about $18,000. We are middle class with very little to contribute to tuition, honestly.
@kaarboer yes U Chicago does have molecular engineering–I should have clarified better. They aren’t a “full blown” engineering school (a la Purdue, UMich, etc) with civil, mechanical, aeronautical, etc. though.