Might help if you get your geography straight. Chicago isn’t on the east coast. Speaking of geography, last I checked Surabaya had a population of over 3 million and is one of the most crowded islands on earth. That’s an interesting definition for middle of nowhere, lol.
That said - What sort of environment do you want? I assume urban…? What do you want to major in? Are you chasing merit money or will you depend on financial aid? If you need financial aid you will need to use the net price calculators to figure out what will be affordable. Do you want a large research university or a small liberal arts school? Public or private?
You can use Supermatch to narrow down what you want. http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/