So far, her favorites are two in-state publics, net price <$20K with merit.
She completely understands our financial situation and she does not make decisions on emotions. She even asked if I would mind if she threw away all of the college mailings because she hates clutter. So I am not worried about her getting attached to a school that is unaffordable like I would be with my next one up who is all emotions.
My temptation to have her apply to a few more schools is to give her a chance to study a particular major that is not offered at the state publics.
The schools I am thinking about are not prestigious but are known to be very nurturing CTCL or similar type schools. Their NPC’s came in around $27-28K, and they would come with no significant travel expenses.
(For background: I originally considered my budget as $25K. Then when she liked two of our state schools that will come under $20K with merit and I found some deals with automatic merit scholarships, I thought I could limit the budget more to avoid federal loans.)
Since we have a very unusual financial situation (low income with savings necessary for survival during retirement), I had already been considering an appeal if an otherwise perfect school came back with a net price surprise over $25K.