Have you already submitted applications to all of these schools?
I assume you must have already spent a lot of time on the UC application, since it’s due in a few days. That’s unfortunate, because I don’t see the UC system working for you, at all - admissions-wise because of your GPA, and budget-wise because the costs will be easily double your budget.
Your accomplishments are impressive, especially in terms of journalism. I could see this helping you a lot at Syracuse. Have you run the Net Price Calculator for Syracuse, and for BU? How do the costs look? If your net cost looks favorable and you really like these schools, an ED2 application to one of them could be a good strategy.
I see NYU and USC as being similar: high reaches both admissions-wise and affordability-wise. And Pitt and UMD are similar in that the OOS cost is over-budget, and significant merit is unlikely.
Seconding getting an application to Mizzou in quickly. For a serious journalism student, this is a top-tier school; and there’s a BA in Linguistics as well.
Similarly, take a look at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. The OOS “sticker price” at OU is 41K/year, so it wouldn’t take a huge merit award to get to your price point. (An added plus here is that tuition is fixed for four years, so there would be no unpleasant tuition-hike surprises.) A BA in Linguistics is available here too. Maybe @thumper1, who is an alum, could weigh in.
Temple University is another OOS public U with a solid journalism program, and the potential for you to get enough merit for it to be affordable. There’s only an undergrad certificate in linguistics, though, not a full major.
Which reminds me to ask - have you fully explored whether you are genuinely interested in linguistic theory? You are clearly very interested in foreign languages, but that doesn’t always translate to enjoying the study of linguistics. As an example, compare the Modern Foreign Language major at Syracuse, which allows you to combine the study of two languages Modern Foreign Language - College of Arts & Sciences at Syracuse University with the Linguistic Studies major (which is still more interdisciplinary and less computational than many colleges’ Linguistics majors) Program: Linguistic Studies, BA - Syracuse University - Acalog ACMS™ to see which seems more appealing.
It’s confusing to try to figure out where you stand, when you have a solid 4.2 weighted GPA, but an unweighted 3.3 which is low for the most competitive schools. Being below the top 10% in class rank also makes it tougher to get into the reachier schools. One way to get perspective is to look at the Common Data Set that most schools publish. It will tell you what percentage of entering students fell within different GPA, SAT and class rank ranges. For example, compare Section C of the Syracuse Common Data Set https://institutionalresearch.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/syracuse_university_cds_2022-2023.pdf with the equivalent at BU https://www.bu.edu/asir/files/2023/03/cds-2023.pdf To me, Syracuse looks more promising, especially if you consider acceptance rates as well (Syracuse: 44% overall, 60% Early Decision; Boston U: 10.7% overall, 25% Early Decision). If the financial aid forecast also looks promising for Syracuse, an EDII app there could be a good move.
I agree with others that more in-state match and safety schools could be in order as well. In addition to others that have already been mentioned, there’s TCNJ, which is probably a high-match, and they have a Journalism & Professional Writing major (and a Linguistics minor).
Good luck! You have a great profile, and I’m sure you’ll do well wherever you land; but your current list has a lot of schools with no path to affordability, as well as a lot of big reaches, so you need to fill in those gaps with better matches and safeties that will work financially.