What are some Good schools for biological sciences that give merit aid?

Answered

This might seem a bit counterintuitive because these schools have a higher sticker price, but your best bet is actually to apply to private colleges where you'd be in the top 10-20% of their admitted class (you can judge that from comparing your scores and GPA with their 75th percentile marks on their websites or other sites like CollegeSimply—but basically, these are schools that our chancing would consider "safeties" for you).

Private schools will always have more merit aid to give out than out-of-state public schools, and if you fall into that "top student" category, you might end up with prices that are a cheaper in the end than the UCs and other out-of-state public schools. It's pretty rare for out-of-state students to get merit aid from the UCs, UMich, Washington, UT-Austin, or most of the other top public research universities, though depending on the state you're in you can sometimes get reduced tuition for being in the same region (like UMass--Amherst will sometimes grant in-state rates to students in other parts of New England.)

So the best option here would be to target private schools where you'd be a top admit. You might actually be pretty close to that group of Northeastern, at least close enough to make it worth applying. Boston University, Case Western Reserve University, and Colgate University might be some others to look into. It also depends on what kind of biology you're interested in—some schools will be good stepping stones for medicine, while others might be better for things like ecology, animal sciences, or marine bio.