I think you need to figure out financials first. OOS means more expensive, especially in the NE. For my kids, 3.9 gpa uw, 33/34 act, the average OOS tuition was around $34,000 a year. UMD offered $2000 a year, st. Joes philly $28,000, UMASS $16,000, Temple $18,000, Pitt $8000, Rutgers (in state) $0, Quinnipiac and Scranton ended up at around $34,000 after merit, UCONN offered $22,000, SUNY Binghamton $12,500. Cheapest option was SJU, most expensive was Villanova ($0, over $70,000 a year). In state seems to be the best bet financially. Unfortunately we are in NJ where there really aren’t budget friendly options.
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Blockquote I think you need to figure out financials first
^ this really is key.
Villanova 1)meets need 2) is need aware 3) is stingy with merit 4) doesn’t offer much FA (peculiar formula). Come to think of it it’d be a great NPC test in addition to the colleges listed on this thread. 
Well meaning posters say Rutgers, Pitt, UMD, basically on this thread we have the full list of all Mid-Atlantic and New England flagships and… unless @tangerinetake1 has a 50k budget with a higher efc, which would make them good deals… they’re likely unaffordable.
In addition, we don’t know whether OP has an efc zero or close to (which would open lots of full need colleges and perhaps Questbridge) and what sort of financials they’re dealing with (is an instate university affordable as is? What kind of merit would be sufficient)?
@tangerinetake1 : you WILL have lots of choices. However, you need affordable choices, and that means different things depending on whether your family makes 45k a year, 125k a year, or 200k a year. NPCs give you an idea for each college - yes, it’s tedious, but you need to “run the npc” on every one of them because you’ll quickly see they calculate what your net cost should be differently. In particular, your assets, primary home equity, any investments or other properties… are all counted differently. Some colleges even look at when you last bought a car, which brand and type (your parents are better off driving an old car for these colleges’ ways of calculating aid, lol.)
The absolute first thing is to run the NPC on public instate colleges.
Are those affordable? (Real question, please answer it 
)
…Affordable NC universities? Then the world’s your oyster: You have very good instate choices that guarantee, if you apply to 4-5 of them, that you can go to college no matter what happens.
Then you need to figure out colleges that are affordable and aren’t in NC. That will take some time.
Once that’s done, you can cut down your list, but don’t start with criteria that shrink the list first. There’s “nice to have” and “need to have”. Affordable is a must.
(Obviously if "affordable " is “anything 50k and under”, another approach than the above is needed, but most parents aren’t in that situation. )
You WILL go to college, everyone on this website will help you. It’s like having pricey private consultants at your disposal, but for free. 
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Except for URI and UNH, these schools are not in the northeast. In addition they are public universities that will be OOS for this applicant. They don’t meet full need for all accepted students AND they typically do not provide a lot of aid to OOS students because their mission is to provide higher education for the instate applicants whose families pay taxes there.
To the OP…you will have lots of time in your life to return to the northeast. This can happen for possible internships in college, or eventually for a job. I agree with the poster up stream…apply to UNC-CH. the school meets full need for all accepted students. Look at other NC publics. You are fortunate to have a bunch of options. They could be affordable for you.
The northeast is a tough place to find affordable options if you aren’t applying to one of the colleges that meet full need for all (e.g. all of the Ivies, Amherst, Bates, and the like). Bates is test optional so that might be an option for you to consider.
Look at Fairtest.org to see test optional schools. You might find one you really like that meets full need…or where merit aid is a significant possibility.
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This came to my mind immediately when reading this thread. Unfortunately, it’s just past their application time. 
However, if anyone else similar is reading and is a sophomore (or parent of a younger student) this is the link to check it out. It’s a great program IMO.
National College Match for rising seniors opens this summer, closes in September, so current juniors still have a shot for that.
However, yes, the College Prep Scholars for current juniors is past deadline 
. For current sophomores, this is a very good program to prepare the best application package for selective/meet need colleges, and they also offer scholarships toward college in several categories (Humanities, STEM, NYC, New American, and 1 per US State.)
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I will leave the school recommendations to the above but love your story. Talented girl from low-income that does coding and pottery and takes care of animals and siblings… Schools love left brain /right brain students especially with compassion. Add in hardworking with great grades… What school wouldn’t want you??
Keep working hard. Most do crappy on the presat tests BTW… Usually not reflective of what score you will get. The advice above is great. Just here to tell you I love who you are and I don’t say that often on CC. Keep moving forward and you will be fine.
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I spent the morning running various schools on npr and I was actually pretty surprised. SO my EFC is 0
the safety/match schools I originally listed (temple, drexel, suffolk, rutgers) came out to around 25,000-35,000 (I can’t afford that)
- I put in some reach schools( boston u, unc chapel hill, tufts(my dream school) and they were around (4,000-6,000) I was not at all expecting that I don’t know how that worked out most of them were the college board npc so the information was mostly the same
the most affordable was unc chapel hill which makes sense because it’s in state but the others really surprised me
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thank you, You’re so kind! 
I would seriously look at schools in the Midwest. Schools like Beloit and Lawrence don’t meet need for all but the are in the mid-upper 90’s. All you care about is that they meet your need. As others have said, a NE urban school is going to be way more difficult from a cost perspective. Follow the money.
I think i’ll be looking into schools around that below 8,000 range both in state and out of state (thanks you all of you I now know that it’s doable 
). I feel much more reassured in my ECs but i’ll still put in the work to up my scores
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If you look into Beloit next year my daughter graduated there and went her last 2 years there. Great school and you would get money. Diverse campus also which is rare for a Lac. It’s small like 1500 students. Pm me when your seriously looking at schools. Also don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t. Because you can!
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Those schools have generous pockets and guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. That is why their net costs are less than those OOS public universities.
Take a look at the Public Health major at Manhattan College in NYC. It looks like a good match.
Bryn Mawr has a good Sociology program. While they include loans in their financial aid, they are very generous in providing student employment.
The Tri-co schools (Haverford and Swarthmore) might have courses in public health, etc.
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Please take a look at Questbridge. It sounds ideal for you. I had assumed you needed to apply junior year (students from our school start then), but you don’t as per what @MYOS1634 mentioned. If you are fortunate enough to be selected by them you can end up at a terrific school for free. It’s worth a shot. The worst that can happen is you don’t get selected, and if that happens, you can continue with your current plan as discussed in this thread.
People who donate to and run Questbridge are looking for candidates who can do well, but can’t afford college and (and often don’t understand the process). This is how they want their $$ used - giving others a hand.
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I agree you should look into Questbridge.
Also, would you be open to some of the women’s colleges? Check their net price calculators…Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr, etc.
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They sent me mail advertising the college match program and I already made an account, I’ll apply when the application opens in the summer I think
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These schools should be moved into the “reach” category, because you need close to a full ride merit scholarship (which should be considered “reach” unless automatic for your stats) to be able to attend them.
The most important school for your list is a safety that you will be admitted to and you can surely afford. Have you checked other in-state public universities’ NPCs?
Did you run the NPC on the colleges I listed?
I picked them carefully
Which ones are affordable?
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This is correct. You cannot go by Fafsa on the need met colleges. They use css and it’s often a different #college-admissions
Also learn the need blind and need aware schools. If your need is too high some need aware will reject you just for that reason…they don’t want to pay.