The curriculum is very unusual and highly rigorous. I will ask DD to figure out how they are calculating.
I was wrong, her weighted GPA is a 5.0286. She said they weigh A’s in AP classes as 6’s and B’s as 5’s. I just googled the question and it seems there are web sources that say it is possible.
Weighted GPA is generally meaningless when the weighting system is not specified. Some weighting systems can result in 5.x or 6.x GPAs, based on some people’s posts on these forums.
The main point is that she has practically all As in a very rigorous schedule!
As a resident of Illinois, she would quality for the Midwest Student Exchange. The states involved are llinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. There are over 100 schools participating in these states. (Check the list—not all school participate and they don’t all do it the same)…Basically, the way it works is the public participating schools agree to put a cap on OOS tuition somewhere not more than 150% of the instate charge, and privates may discount a bit (like 10%).
On another note, for midwestern schools we found that Wartburg College in Iowa is very generous with merit aid for top students and could definitely come in under $20,000 total including room and board after merit scholarships. Very nice, smaller liberal arts college. Campus is beautiful (but small) and I got the feeling when visiting that students really get a very personalized experience. They rolled out the red carpet for our child’s visit but she ultimately decided to attend somewhere else. Wartburg also has a second campus in Colorado and I understand many students spend time at that campus for a semester. (FYI attending a visit day will give you another 1,000 scholarship).
University of Nebraska is also a great value—a big 10 school, great school pride, solid academics, great city campus adjacent to a a downtown, and they have a medical school as well. Their website is very up-front about scholarships. Look at the “scholarship estimator” page and enter her stats…it was right on for us. Total package including room and board could also come in under $20,000 here.
Definitely get your daughter to apply to some financial sure things early in the game so that stress is gone! Early action deadlines are sometimes as early as November 1 to qualify for big scholarships. Be organized and have a plan so you have more real options at decision time!
And yes, there are great schools in the top 50 or so that offer $20,000 or more per year academic merit which is fantastic and worth chasing — but if that means a $70,000 a year school is now only $50,000 a year and your realistic budget is $20,000 plus loans then it might not be that helpful. Focus your energies where they will do the most good. Kids (and parents) get burned out after so many applications and just want it to be done!!
Your daughter sounds like she will have a bright future wherever she goes! As I read once on this site somewhere, the cream always rises to the top. 
Good luck.
My D16 had similar story, great GPA and ACT but not NMSF. We are in Midwest too.
She got a full tuition scholarship to Pitt where she is thriving. I’d look there.
My S18 added NMF which added more choices.
If you have 20k on the table per year, that would be plenty for some places—but merit awards can be very competitive so beware. If she will take federal loans, then you could get up to 25k budget freshman year which would open more options for her.
Other places my Kids considered in that price range were Truman State (my financial dream school but too rural for D), University of Kansas, Alabama, Temple, West Virginia, Miami Ohio, Oklahoma. These aren’t the “glamour” schools, but great opportunities exist at all of them.
Illinois is tough… hard to get enough merit at UIUC. She would likely do well at NIU or Illinois Wesleyan (private) if she’d look at those. Top students at my kids’ high school have followed the money to University of Alabama. Other likely options would be Arizona State, Iowa State, University of Nebraska, University of Missouri, University of Kentucky. Indiana University and University of Minnesota maybe. She’d likely get into the honors colleges - which brings the rigor she might want if not more money. Many private colleges give good merit aid also, especially if you look beyond the big names. Since the NPC won’t be accurate for your employment situation, your daughter should focus on merit rather than need based aid if possible.
@college-bound-parent thanks so much your post was very informative! I did not know about the Midwest Student Exchange.