Need help on college choices which are safeties and which are matches

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I am a international student from China and will be applying for college this year. I really want some help since I am from a small city even in China so I could barely get any resources on this.
Talk about myself.
TOEFL 116
I took two SATs
first one in January and scored 1990 (Reading 590 Math 760 Writing 640 Essay 8 )
second one in May and scored 2090 (Reading 640 Math 800 Writing 650 Essay 8)
I was definitely expecting a 2200+ for that May test but something really crappy happened. I was reported, out of imagine, because of erasing a mistakenly filled answer in the last section. I rushed back from restroom and the test has already started so I started to fill in the first answer without adjusting my breath and just filled it after the last question in last section. I am also wondering will the report stuff be sent to college with my score together? What am I supposed to do if asked later by colleges? Tell the truth? But the what happened was really, outrageous.

So I am thinking of taking a September ACT and a October SAT

SAT2 Math 790 Physics 700 US History 670

Please don’t say why you did such awfully on this…I know I did not perform well on test and never performed well on any tests in my entire life, actually.

AP Micro/Macro Economics 5 Still waiting for US History, Human Geography and Calculus

School Performances
We don’t use GPA and rank only in percentage. I got almost straight As in the past two years and ranked top 5% at school, with 1400 students in my grade.

Activities
Student Government :
position of department minister
Debate Club : I do Public Forum Debate
School Debate Club founder. Organized the first regional in my region with my school as host.
Several octofinalists in Chinese regionals. And a Harvard Speech and Debate Tournament Runner-up in International Group.
School publishers :
editor in chief of all school papers and magazines
editor in chief of student handbook in 2014

I am really interested in Political Science so I selected colleges primarily by major. Here are my current choices
UC Berkeley
Georgetown University
UCLA
University of Virginia
Tufts University
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
NYU
UCSD
UC Davis
University of Wisconsin-Madison

I do know the first three are reaches. But I really wanna know which in the rest of my select are matches and which are safeties. Or should I look at lower rankings for safety or match colleges?

Thank you very very very much for your help.

2

For a safety school, they need to be affordable and you should have a very high chance for an acceptance. How much can you and your family afford? I will only comment on the California UC’s and none could be considered a Safety. UC Davis is probably a Match. UCSD maybe a High Match and UCLA/UCB are Reaches.

3

What if cost is not considered? Just talking about the case, then what other choices do I have?

4

If you live in New York, then look at the Suny Schools for Match and safeties. In-state schools are always your best option when you are looking for safeties. Since you are not a CA resident, you would be paying $55K/year or more for the UC’s so definitely not affordable.