I agree money is the top of the list. Also that getting to know teachers is far more useful than getting to know your GC. You don’t need to make an enemy of your GC, but at least in our school they have 200 other kids, most of whom were needier than ours were. Your junior year teachers OTOH generally know you pretty well by the end of the year.
I’d say don’t get hung up on safety, matches or reaches. Apply to two safeties so you have choices in the spring. If you get into a school EA or rolling admissions it is automatically upgraded to safety status. If you have two safeties - you don’t have to worry about how hard it is to get into the other schools on your list. Of course if you have a kid who will be devastated by a lot of rejections - maybe you will need to play it safer.
Try to enjoy the process. My younger son in particular learned so much about himself by being forced to think about who he was. I was amazed by how much he matured over the course of the year.