Schools with best merit aid?

Until you understand how much your family is able to contribute each year towards the cost of college, it will be hard to build a good list. You also need to understand if you are likely to be awarded any financial aid by running Net Price Calculators at different types of colleges.

If financial aid is not in the picture at a given type of school, and if your family can pay $30K/year, and you can take a $5.5K student loan, and you can work over the summer and during the school year and save $3K towards the cost of school, that gives you a base budget of $38.5K/year, just as an example.

So, a college that costs $63K a year with the largest merit scholarship being $15K doesn’t work in that scenario, because you’ve still got a $9.5K/year gap. A college with the same cost that has a $25K merit scholarship for which you’re a credible candidate could work.

I like the Thomas Jefferson (VA) HS for Science and Technology scholarship lists for general and college-specific scholarships: https://www.tjhsst.edu/studentservices/career-center/index.html

And if your family is not able to pay full costs for OOS students at the University of California, why even have it on your list? That application is a pain to fill out, and the essays take time you’d be better off spending on polishing great essays for colleges that conceivably could give you a financial package that works. (And I say that as a UC alum.)