Not sure it works for music theatre (has theatre) but since you mentioned Grinnell and Lawrence - ie LACs - check out Kalamazoo College - urban but to a smaller scale and with its K Plan, the open curriculum might be a good thing for the double major.
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Very school dependent. My S is applying for the Belk and he just asked his guidance counselor and she asked for the link and sent int he recommendation. I think 2 kids from our HS went to Davidson in the past 8 years and none were superstars. I think my S was the first kid that they ever nominated. OP’s D’s HS maybe the same. As I mentioned on this thread already Davidson also has music performance scholarships and may have theater ones.
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You understand that there are only 20 spots on Common App, and most schools have supplemental essays and even more supplemental for scholarships. With too many applications quality will diminish. If this is a work in progress with visits that is fine. If it is close to the final list, it is way too big… One of DDs applied to 21 schools… That was a big mistake. She should have applied to 15 max. We were also merit hunting (but with ceiling 
)
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This light might be directional - check each school to see what they truly offer. I know the Bama scholarship is better than this shows. Alas it’s not a school you’d be interested in.
But this list may give you an idea of possible opportunities available if your daughter scores the recognition on the ACT. Maybe hold for later !!
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Yes, this is just a starting list. She is a junior and as stated above, we are just creating the list of options now. Actual applications will be to 10-12 max of these. I just didn’t want her wasting any of those spots on places we would definitely not agree to pay for.
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OP- I’m saying this with love (seriously).
You’d be getting less pushback and more helpful suggestions if you had started with the following:
Full payers but hoping for merit, will assess on a case by case basis any admits without aid. Preference for urban but will trade that off for performance opportunities. Likely Physics major but wants to keep theater on the table as an option.
I’m getting whiplash with the moving of the goal posts (Grinnell? Berkeley out of state? Northeastern?) and since you went to the trouble of putting your “But we are only interested in schools that provide merit aid” in bold-- it’s very confusing to those of us who are trying to be helpful.
There are tons of us on CC who were full payers BUT only for schools where we felt it was “worth it” (I put myself in that category-- much to the chagrin of one of my kids guidance counselor who had a robust list of “strong engineering and/or physics programs” most of which I vetoed.
But being coy about “max of 60K but we can secretly afford more for decent prestige and unicorn” and then pushing back on folks who are trying to be helpful- trust me, this can be a better experience for you and more valuable for your D.
Regardless of how much (if any) merit you get, places like Boston are astonishingly expensive. And that’s assuming that your D takes advantage of all the free performances (there are many) and “free if you work as an usher” offers for symphony, ballet, theater. And even if they come in under budget- places like U Conn are the opposite of “Big City” and are not even “Big City adjacent”. It’s “mid-sized city adjacent” to Hartford. And I’m told- not much fun without a car (which is yet one more expense).
We can be helpful if you’ll let us.
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I would say that your list is more tilted to big Cities than Physics 
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Quite a few of the schools on our list are included there: Fordham, Cal Poly, Boston University, Lawrence. Cool!
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wait, but BU is not on your last list… Did I miss it?
Since I am a new user it doesn’t allow me to edit any posts, but throughout this (very long) thread I have given very clear and lengthy explanations of what the ideal criteria are, and what the flexible criteria are - i.e. since our list is specific and very hard to meet, we have to bend/break some of the criteria to get a workable list. If I stick to only adding schools that meet every one of my ideal criteria I might have a list of 2 schools.
And this group as a whole has been exceedingly helpful. Not sure why you suggest it hasn’t been. I was looking for suggestions for places that weren’t on my radar that might fit some or many of our criteria and people have provided them, along with a lovely dialog. The more criteria that match the better, but my list is not rigidly restricted to meeting all requirements.
A few people seem genuinely bothered by the fact that I have left some expensive schools on the list. Or ones that aren’t in urban areas. The list is 20+ schools long and designed to be a starting point. I’m not putting up the list and stating “every school in this list is in an urban area, with off-campus living available, with strong physics and accessible MT programs, relatively selective, and easily costs less than 60K with no merit.” That list would be tiny.
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You are correct it isn’t on the list here. It is on my full spreadsheet, but I didn’t have it on this list because of cost. The possibility of a National Hispanic Merit Scholarship could help that a lot ($25k), but it is still $$.
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My kid applied initially to three colleges. That’s it. They were the only three that she liked that fulfilled her criteria of strong sciences, ability to play her instrument in the student orchestra not as a music major, and pleasing weather. She also wanted an urban area. Like your daughter, my kid wanted to participate in the college orchestra in college. This was not easy to find for her…and the compromise she made was that her college orchestra wasn’t the strongest…but she was able to play all four year and continue lessons. She also played in several civic theater productions and in the semiannual school musical orchestra.
Perhaps your kid can compromise in a similar way.
Having a teeny list that is what you actually want is way better than having a huge list where most places are lacking in more than one thing.
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Do not put too much pressure on your daughter with PSAT. It is what it is. If she does not get nominated, it is not the end of the world. Many top schools do not care.
My oldest missed a nomination by 1 point in that particular year (we are in super competitive Maryland, and her score was something like 20 points above scores of NMF from other states). She had a very high SAT. Believe it or not in the end there were 0 schools on our list that cared was she NM finalist or not. (She actually removed Northeastern from her list after visit…)
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I don’t think anyone is bothered- genuinely or otherwise. Just that we’ve read hundreds of threads started by HS seniors- in March and April- asking “I was admitted to my dream college with merit- my parents say it’s not enough even though I know we can afford it, can you help me persuade my parents?”
And another few hundred started by the parents of these kids “my kid got a full ride to Eastern Clown College of Massachusetts. Will Northeastern up their package to match it since Northeastern is my kids first “ride to die” school?”
And another few hundred started by loving aunts and uncles “My sister is taking out a HELOC and is going to be underwater in order to afford what my nephew claims is his first choice college. How can I persuade her that this is a really terrible idea?”
But you do you. Folks here are trying to help.
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Well, hopefully you can tell by reading my posts that we very clearly do not fall into any of those categories. But thank you for your concern. You keep saying folks are “trying to help” as though I am rejecting advice, I am genuinely a bit bewildered by that, but, you do you I guess. lol.
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One thing to investigate when looking at schools with both a BA and and BFA in MT is whether the BA students get parts (or leads) in productions. We found a lot of schools that said non-majors could audition, and they could, but very few would get parts. Usually those went to males, or to a very specific type if needed for a production. Even BFAs had trouble getting parts.
A school like CU would have this issue as there is a BA available, but a BFA in MT by audition. There are a lot of productions going on, like Shakespeare in the summer, community theater in both Boulder and the Denver metro area, and all the school year productions. But most parts go to the BFA students.
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I think OP is a parent of a junior and is just developing ideas. It’s great. We started with 109 for my daughter. Got on the info list of all 109. And unsubscribed as they came off.
After we made campus visits it was easy to narrow - turns out I won’t like a LAC. They’re off.
Turns out I won’t like isolated or small town. Miami, Elon- off.
I think OP is casting wide and it’s great.
Once students get on a few campuses it becomes much clearer. And fast. And the list compresses.
When it comes time - as long as the student has one but preferably two plus that are easy ins, are liked, and hit the desired budget, it doesn’t matter.
It’s hard to stroke that check 2x per year. Imagine - 10k, 20k, 40k 2x a year. Easy to say. Hard to do.
If the offers come in $80k plus it’s ok because they have those 2-3 to fall back on.
So I see no issue with what OP is doing. Basically they’re thinking. I imagine is we send names there’s a brief check of the school. Or not. If it looks passable they add to the list or show the student to get their opinion.
The only thing I disagree with OP on is the entire thread. I mean I’d be at Arizona and done - $100k for four years!! Close the thread :)That’s me.
But OP isn’t me and they don’t like one of the nicest cities in America. 
But I think it’s fine and I like how OP responds to most notes whether agreed or not.
It’s early and mom/dad are just doing some early prep work. And it’s smart.
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Thank you! I was starting to feel like I had broken some unspoken rule with a couple of people on here.
And re: Arizona - I hear you. I really do. I just know for sure if it was between the UofU and UofArizona she would choose UofU - and it would be even cheaper! Since we aren’t big fans of Arizona, we really don’t need both places on our list. But someone else looking for similar things should totally have it on theirs!
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I tease
I am finding this thread very useful, and I think it will be useful to future parents/students. Many students who are talented in the performing arts broadly defined (e.g. acting, musical theater, vocal performance, dance, instrumental performance etc) are faced with this exact dilemma. They plan to major in something else (often something more “practical”) but still want to continue their art at a reasonably high level.
The issue with performing arts is that if you don’t do a BFA in these subjects, it can be remarkably difficult to obtain opportunities at that “reasonably high level.” So a lot of work goes into finding schools where such opportunities are possible. It is NOT that the parent/student doesn’t care as much about the “main” major (in this case Physics), it’s that strong physics programs are relatively common. A school where a BA theater major or theater minor can actually audition for and get cast in a Musical Theater shows? Not so common!! Thus all the Musical Theater talk.
So anyway, this thread will be useful even if the OP’s daughter changes her mind tomorrow and wants her “main major” to be math…or neuroscience…or nursing…or linguistics…or East Asian Studies. The tricky problem will still be finding a school that will allow her to have quality opportunities in her art. Because I think it’s possible this kid (like any other high school junior) may change her mind about her major, but I don’t see her no longer loving her art.
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