how to sift out colleges for your list ... incoming senior

A true safety is a place

  1. where you are guaranteed admissions for your stats,
  2. that you can absolutely afford without any aid other than guaranteed federal aid (as determined by the FAFSA) and/or guaranteed state aid and/or aid guaranteed for your stats by the college/university itself,
  3. that offers your probable major(s),
    and
  4. you are happy to attend if all else goes wrong in the admission and financial aid process.

Have you identified a place like that yet? Provided you like your safety, everything else is just gravy. Find at least one safety, and then build your list up from that base.