@TrendaLeigh With your daughter’s stats, interests and your NC or FL residence, I’d encourage you to check out Lehigh University. I think your daughter would have an excellent shot at merit aid, and they offer generous financial aid as well. Lehigh is fantastic for STEM and business, and they are known for the ease with which you can create an independent major or study in some of their very unique joint-degree programs. I’m a devoted alumna who graduated many years ago and just took my son up the other week - so I was able to get an updated look at Lehigh. Any questions, feel free to ping me. Unfortunately Lehigh does not offer EA - just RD and ED.
I agree with @KLSD. Those schools that meet full need without loans can come close to meeting your need. A $10k gap can be covered by $5500 (freshmanyear) Direct Loan and student working and scrimping. Check out the NPCs and see what individual schools estimate what you expect to pay.
@KLSD and @cptofthehouse, we were actually already counting on her taking out loans (unfortunately) to meet the EFC (for no loan schools), but we’re thinking creatively about how to generate more income/cut expenses. The first year will be the most challenging, because our 2018 incomes was much higher than normal; when we run numbers with 2019 numbers, the EFC is more realistic.
@1stTimeThruMom, thanks for the recommendation. My daughter really likes Lehigh - the location, size, and selectivity are on point, and she was particularly interested in their CSB program AND the summer in Prague. She has a shot at a scholarship, but if not, they meet full need and cap loans (for our income band) at 2k a year. We’ve added it to the list! (Fortunately, we’ve cut more, so we’re getting there.)
She and I went shopping for a homecoming dress last night and she struggled with that decision! So it will be interesting to see how she makes her final decision re: college. (She went with the cheaper dress that she didn’t love quite as much; we’ll see if her frugality wins out in the end with colleges as well.)
How about Mount Holyoke? They have full tuition merit and she could also take courses in the consortium to round out STEM offerings.