OK. If a level of sacrifice is definitively present, then I think that you should add a few NMS merit-friendly schools to your list, if only as safeties.
Are you familiar with the concept of Honors Colleges are public universities? If not, you might want to read “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania” and “Inside Honors 2020-2021: Ratings and Reviews of 40 Public University Honors Programs”
I mean “safeties” is a bad term to use. Just trying to get at a list of schools to look into more that I can be a bit more confident in as opposed to the unpredictability of the ones I listed in my post.
Notre Dame, Georgetown, Amherst, Williams, and WashU are still all reaches. BU and BC are matches/targets. You need to come up with quite a few schools more similar to BU and BC that are targets, plus at least two safeties that you would be very happy to attend.
I would like to know more about what type of environment you are attracted to and can see yourself in … size, region (would u b ok w the South given you are a voracious skier ?) and would u b ok with a LAC ? I need more info on the experience you want to have beyond stellar academics. I also would like to know what your college counselor has said …
I used to live in the Chicago area and would definitely be interested in going there, and would at least be interested somewhere with a somewhat urban environment. Upper east coast is definitely appealing being close to skiing. I am interested in LACs but my focus is on a university since I feel that would be a better fit for me overall.
I’d consider myself a fairly social person, but I would really like to end up somewhere that I can connect with others that share a similar mindset and are also focused and motivated to achieve highly! My hs counselor said she was very confident in my chances for UMich and said I should be confident in my applications to some of the top schools on my list from my research (Harvard/UPenn/Dartmouth/Yale). That said, our school usually only has one student attend an elite school out of state in each class (if that), which is something to consider.
Also quick update (edited in original post): I was able to score a 1570 on my school administered SAT (790 ERW 780 Math) with a 1580 superscore, which I am super excited about. I felt that my prior score helped get me in the door, so to speak, but I feel way more confident after getting my new score in.