If he gets in Grinnell with the expected financial aid that is of course number 1 choice. There may be a little bit of regret in case he gets from top choices in UK but that’s life. Personally I feel USA education is better and more well rounded than UK.
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Depending upon how much financial aid you need, there may be no safeties in the US. There are of course lots of liberal arts colleges where admissions is very likely or close to certain, but affordability might not be as certain. I do think that there are many LACs in the US where your son’s chances are quite good including affordability. As reaches I wonder about Amherst College, Williams College, and Bowdoin College. All are highly ranked and very good but would be reaches.
There are small “primarily undergraduate” universities in Canada which would be both safeties for admissions and probably only about half of the cost of universities and colleges in the US. We looked at several in the eastern part of Canada (we live in the northeast of the US). Acadia, Bishop’s, and Mount Allison are three very good options. Acadia University has the advantage that it would be easier to fly into from India (presumably via Europe) since it is a reasonable taxi ride from the Halifax airport. It is also very good for biology. None of these schools are well known outside of eastern Canada, but the education quality is excellent and there are very good research opportunities available. All have rolling admissions, which given your son’s excellent stats should bring an acceptance quite quickly.
Regarding the University of Vermont, given your son’s excellent stats I think that admissions is close to certain and a presidential merit scholarship is very likely. Whether this would be sufficient to make it affordable is hard to say. The NPC for UVM does predict merit (or did a few years ago) and was accurate in our case.
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Excellent schools but not safetys - especially for an international needing aid from an over-represented country.
OP - I would look at colleges in your home country for true safety schools.
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Andy, comparing one student with much worse profile at a B+ LAC last year is not the rational way to look at this. That college may had a specific need that other “B+” LAC’s don’t have THIS year- kid played bassoon and the orchestra needed a bassoon player. College wanted more students from India, Pakistan, SE Asia and boom- this kid’s application landed on someone’s desk. Etc.
And don’t guess on whether getting a visa is a problem or not- you can check the current requirements for getting a student visa online. If you have financing for the first two years but not the second two years- you will not be getting a visa. US Immigration is not interested in admitting students who will be at risk for being homeless in 24 months because they can’t afford to stay in college, and can’t afford to go home. So you either have the money- and can prove it- or you don’t. No need to guess.
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Thanks for the detailed answer. Yes will take a look at the Canada option and explore more about the schools you mentioned.
Depending on how UK decisions come out (some expected in next 2-3 weeks) and how Grinnell (ED) shows up by mid December we may apply to a few more Reach or Safety schools.
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Thanks @blossom for your concern about US visa. All I am saying is I am looking for advice/suggestions on LACs with good Biology program that will be easier to get in at this stage from this forum. I do not need advice about how to get Visa post admission at this stage and from this forum. Will solve that problem when and if we get there!
If your budget is 30-40% of the full cost of a private LAC, that would be about a 30K budget, correct?
You may want to look at some of the public LAC’s where you could afford to full-pay. The most affordable ones - definitely under 30K/year - are University of Minnesota, Morris, and Truman State University in Missouri. Both are fine schools that send many students on to top grad programs, and your son’s ability to attend would not be dependent on financial aid. He would get automatic merit at Truman State, reducing the cost even more. Admissions are rolling at both; Morris has a Dec 15th priority deadline for maximum scholarship consideration.
Somewhat more expensive but still likely affordable public LAC’s include SUNY Geneseo and UNC Asheville. Both of these have Nov 15th Early Action deadlines.
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Thanks much for these suggestions. These are new considerations which we have not thought about so far! Will study more and pick some of these surely.
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Thanks @billythegoldfish @merc81 @Novacat9191 @MAmomto4 @DadOfJerseyGirl @Mwfan1921 @DadTwoGirls @aquapt for all your help. Appreciate the constructive comments by all of you. We have added two colleges which look like safeties… University of Vermont and College of Wooster. Online calculators seem to suggest 93% admission probability whatever that means 
In addition we will be applying for W&L + Johnson in this month.
After the UK results start flowing in and depending on Grinnell result we may add a few more reach (and rich!) LACs to the list to be done in December.
I understand the modus operandi of research Universities pretty well since I did my graduate degrees in those. However LACs, we could not have done without this group’s help. Thanks everyone for your kind support 
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