You would have to check ones where his stats place him in the upper tier of accepted students, and then determine if they offer merit. You could look at meritmore.com – I haven’t used it but I remember reading about it.
There are a lot of us in that same predicament. People on this thread have made a lot of great suggestions of schools that can get you to where you need to be financially. Generally speaking, you are going to have to let go of your notion of prestige. It’s highly unlikely that your son will get a big merit scholarship at a school that is a reach to begin with. That doesn’t mean that you can’t throw in an application to a school like Richmond that does give out some merit scholarships and see what happens
Also wondering what your family is thinking in terms of Jewish life on campus? You mentioned some schools like Davidson that have very small Jewish populations. Is your son looking to be involved with Hillel? Join AEPi? It might give folks some other ideas of places to suggest.
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Frankly, the Jewish aspect is more important to his mother, which is a very big deal…
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Thank you for the suggestion. I’ve read enough and spoken with enough people with kids in college to have a working understanding how this game is played. Guess I need to re-calibrate a few things in my mind about the realities of college admissions process.
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Again, that’s why I like McGill. Good prestige, good academics for high-stat kids, low cost (especially for BA), easy app, no “game”, usually a quick response (depending on the strength of the app— stronger applicants hear back sooner).
Cons are cold weather, large student body, no hand holding and I am not sure how easy it is to change majors, which might be a problem for an undecided student.
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McGill also offers some merit although I recall it is capped for international students and does require one essay.
Macalester has a lot of community ties in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and offers a lot of applied learning, service learning, and internship opportunities. So you would not necessarily need to follow up with a graduate degree to start your career. That said, there are some careers that require a graduate degree no matter where you went to school. But Macalester is really good at connecting students with career-building experience, no matter the major. and come to think of it, every LAC my D23 considered (including Macalester, including the school she eventually chose) does the same. A lot of attention devoted to internships, applied and fieldwork, community service, and so on. Subsidies to make low-pay or unpaid internships manageable are also very common.
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Better now than with sought after acceptances that are not affordable (btdt). We have 5 so our budget was lower than yours trying to find merit knowing there wouldn’t be any FA.
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And Macalester give my kid a fairly hefty unsolicited merit package. Though cost would almost certainly be higher than McGill for a donut hole family. Both great schools!
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Thank you all for suggesting Macalaster, it was not on my radar.
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Five to put through college? Oey vey, how do you do it…
Both kids know they can apply to 20 colleges on Common App and get accepted everywhere but we will only pay for what we can pay for, no loans and no working a few extra years to support their education.
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CPSLO admits by major, so Naviance scattergrams for the entire school may be misleading.
CPSLO also has an unusual change of major policy, which is that it looks back at the student’s frosh admission point score to see whether the student would have been admitted to the new major back then.
Unlike some other CSUs, CPSLO does not publish its admission formula or past threshold scores for each major.
SMU is nonsectarian. We’re considering it as our D’s safety school next year.
You might want to check out the SUNY system as well. It’s relatively affordable in general, OOS, and some of the campuses offer a new Flagship Match rate to IL students. Binghamton fits many of his criteria the best (smaller flagship of 14K undergrads, residential campus, strong academically across the board) - it’s not part of the Flagship Match deal but probably still in budget. SUNY Albany has about 13K undergrads and has a strong Honors College that he’d probably get into; it’s a great place for poli sci as it’s in the state capital… and with the Flagship Match deal, it would cost the same as UIUC in-state. Both of these campuses have business schools with undergrad programs. There are also smaller SUNY’s that are high-quality; Geneseo (4500 undergrads) is the state’s honors public LAC.
Another school that comes to mind when you describe your son is Denison (if 2300 undergrads isn’t too small), which might give enough merit to be in budget. They have a particularly strong DC internship program for poli sci students, and they have several business-related majors (financial economics, and global commerce).
If he’s particularly interested in foreign languages and international business, he might look at U of Rhode Island’s dual-degree International Business Program https://web.uri.edu/business/academics/undergraduate/international-business-program/ which has both study and internship abroad built in. URI has 14K undergrads and a gorgeous coastal location.
Another school that’s very strong in business and international relations, and would likely give him merit, is U of Denver. It has around 6K undergrads and is also in a capital city, with terrific public transit access to the city from the campus.
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I feel like hustle is so far missing from his dna. If McGill requires being super pro active and advocating for yourself to be successful in college, then it may not be the best fit for him.
All are interesting names to consider, thank you.
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I respect that. Hopefully my post did not read otherwise. 
D21 (premed, needed to save in undergrad) was hunting merit so we know the challenge for a donut hole family. One thing my D had to accept is that there may be trade-offs when affordability is the #1 priority. Whether that trade-off is location (too remote? See if they have a semester in DC! Is a business school a must?) or whatever, be open to schools that may not meet all your preferences. But only apply to schools where your kid will be happy… that is not an acceptable trade-off! 
Our own observation during our merit search was that schools seem to really value service activities. So if your kid volunteers or mentors through synagogue, tutors, volunteers at soup kitchens… that is worth highlighting. IMO there is high value placed on giving back to the community. Some merit applications make that more clear than others.
To meet your budget with merit, prestige will need to be set aside for a good portion of the list. However, if your student has well thought out safeties and matches, there is no reason they should not apply for competitive merit at more prestigious schools. Just make certain they understand the budget and that affordability is part of acceptance.
Small-mid schools with auto-merit (can be determined based on the chart on each website):
Miami U - Ohio
Univ of Alabama - Birmingham & Huntsville campuses are smaller
Small-mid schools to research (some of these are repeats of other posters) that offer “tuition discounts/merit” to top students:
Rhodes
Furman (may lean conservative for some but is accepting)
Denison
Tulane (values demonstrated interest and pushes for ED/ED2)
CWRU (values demonstrated interest and pushes for ED/ED2)
UI Kelley - may be too large but the well-regarded business school may be a trade-off
Uof SC Darla Moore- large but very well-regarded business school and honors college
Small-mid with competitive merit:
Davidson (DC semester)
W&L (business school, DC semester, full ride to 10% of freshman class, edit: Weinstein scholarship full tuition for Jewish student)
URichmond (business school, DC semester, state capitol)
Emory (state capitol)
By the way, we loved McGill. Covid took it off my D’s list but that is a great suggestion.
Note: I have great respect for @AustenNut 's thoughtful posts that draw attention to oft overlooked schools. They are a CC gem! But one school that was recently mentioned, Mercer (GA), has a Baptist affiliation (unless that has very recently changed).
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He doesn’t have zero ECs. What is happening with the new club?
It’s not the number of ECs that matter as much as the breadth of involvement. This new club thing sounds interesting.
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Hi! I’m pretty sure we are at the same high school as you. I have 3 suggestions.
(1) As an fyi, the counselors can see the Naviance scattergram info by major. Something that we cannot do as parents. So make sure your son asks specifically about any particular majors he might be considering. My DS24 is looking at business and it makes a difference at a lot of schools (like UIUC).
(2) Check instagram for “[school name] college decisions 2023” or something similar. You can get a good feel for the majors and where kids are going. Some of the scattergram info is old and pre-covid was a different admissions world for our school.
(3) Maybe check out Brandeis. Visited with DD22 and there was a lot to like. (The class sizes in her intended major were larger than she wanted, otherwise she would have applied.) It’s the only school I’ve ever heard specifically say, between rigor and perfect grades, while we of course want both, we prioritize rigor over grades. They want smart students who want to push themselves and aren’t afraid of getting a B in the process. The kids we met there were super smart and kind. I have a feeling it’s the sort of school that would think reading a lot is a good EC. It is also the second smallest R1 University (only Cal Tech is smaller). So it is a small school with a lot of resources and opportunities. And it also has a sizable Jewish population.
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