Fl Tech is not in the ‘ideal’ size for him either. It may list 9000 or so students but there are only about 3500 on campus. There are a lot of students on co-ops or internships, there are a lot of online students. The psychology program is very very good, for both forensic psych and autism studies.
The NPC includes the amount you should get in merit, although the programs change so often you can’t be sure of what will be there. Most merit is based on gpa and test scores, so somewhat automatic. There are ‘bonus’ merit awards (or guaranteed minimums) for things like being an eagle scout or in robotics or going to a STEM high school.