I don’t really know where to start, it’s august, summer before my senior year, and i don’t really have a college list yet.
First you need to find out how much you and your parents can pay each year. Calculate your EFC: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator
Then ask how much your parents will contribute.
Home State? Will you need financial aid: need based and/or merit aid?
Intended major? Size of school? Urban/Suburan/Rural? In-state or OOS?
What are your stats? UW GPA, Test scores, EC’s. #AP/IB or DE courses?
thanks for the reply. are you asking me those questions or are you saying i need to take those in consideration when searching?
Both. If you want some help, CC posters can give you some suggestions if you are willing to post the information.
Home State? WA
Will you need financial aid: need based and/or merit aid?not sure what the difference is, my brother goes to NYU (really expensive), and i have a little brother in high school as well, so financial aid will be important
Intended major? astronomy/astrophysics/physics
Size of school? any size as long as it is not small
Urban/Suburan/Rural? prefer suburban, but don’t really care too much. i can deal with rural or urban
In-state or OOS? In state, the only good college is University of Washington, so I’m mostly looking to apply out of state
What are your stats? UW GPA 3.94
Test scores SAT 2040, 2170, qualified for PSAT/NMSQT, sat math 2 - 780 sat physics - 800
EC’s.-Played high school soccer fresh-junior year, was varsity on junior year
-played club soccer 3 years, my junior year we went to state quarterfinal and were select league champions
(but im dont with team soccer now)
-volunteer as teacher assistant at USBKS to help teach korean (sophomore and junior year)
-I just got a job in Garden Club, a retirement home as a server (waiter) and will be starting next week
-does taking a summer astronomy course from a local community college count?
-Completed phase 1 of washington aerospace scholars program where i took a course made by University of washington & NASA on space and space travel during junior school year, my grade qualified for phase 2 which is a summer residency at museum of flight, but i am not a U.S citizen so wasn’t eligible ( i took the course knowing that)
-school astronomy club (we didn’t do much unfortunately, there were only 4-5 people
#AP/IB or DE courses?6 so far, 10 or 11 after senior year - all AP
You need to ask your parents how much they can pay since you have 1 brother in college. You also need to calculate your EFC since again you have a sibling in college. If you do not know what you can pay, then there is no way to find which schools are safeties (need to affordable with minimal debt). OOS can be expensive especially if they are public since in-state students get the better rates. University of Alabama would be a good OOS to look at for FA/Merit aid but not sure they have your intended majors.
If your parents cannot contribute much and you are not eligible for need based aid, you need to look for merit aid based on your stats. You can look at this site for some ideas: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Your in-state schools would be the most affordable, so look there for a safety or two.
ok so even if i made say UCB i might have to go to UW because OOS is expensive? 
i have considered this before but in that case would getting student loans be worth it?