You are doing the fun part of college picking instead of getting some hard realities in line. I don’t know why your GC would say not to take money into consideration. You say that you will likely be expected to pay full sticker price which can loom in the $80k range for some of these schools and a number of them give zero scholarships that are not need based. It’s important to talk to your parents and get a very good idea what they are willing and able to pay. It’s is absolutely not true that Amherst or Brown or any school will cough up the money if you are accepted any more than a sudden money tree with 10s of thousands of dollars will sprout up in your yard. I’ve seen many many very disappointed students here in NY who worked very hard on their applications, got into Union, Syracuse, Dickinson,etc and got the news from their parents that they were not able and/or willing to pay what it cost to go to those schools. It happens quite often. It is important to have a serious talk with your parents on how they are thinking about college costs.
A lot of times, parents in your situation want to kick that can down the road. Let the kid work hard at all the applications, secretly hoping that some big fat scholarship falls into their laps, or that the kid grabs the brass ring of HPY et al which the parents are willing to mortgage the house, break into the retirement money, take out loans to make it possible to go there. So, they say, “just apply wherever you want”, and then when the results are in and the chips are down, the real financial situation emerges.
I recommend you get a sure fire admit, the absolute safety that you know will take you and that you know you can afford , and that you can like. That last part might be your greatest challenge ; it often is for those with selective college aspirations. That’s the crux of college search. Then get several of likely schools that have merit possibilities for you that you like. Then come the reaches, and the lottery tickets. Be aware that the applications for scholarships and for some highly selective schools take up a lot of time and effort for very slim chances. The chances of getting merit money from those high reach schools that may have such scholarships is close to zilch if you are not a top candidate for them. So your parents need to be on board for paying full price for such schools if you don’t want to be one of many kids Uve known left holding the bag when they can’t come up with the money for some schools that accepted them.