@nmocha57, no matter how confident you are, unless you are happy to start at a cc, you need a safety, preferably one where you can get early admission so that you know it really was a safety.
Also there is plenty of Greek life at Dartmouth and UVa, not sure about some of the others.
The reach schools are easy to pick-- everyone likes posh. Don’t visit the reach schools first. When buying a house, if you visit a mansion first, everything afterwards will seem shabby.
Just make sure to spend enough care picking your safety schools. Besides being schools you are likely to be admiited into, your safety schools need to be schools you are actually willing to go to, and what you can afford.
@mathyone, I was considering Richmond to be my safety for the time being. Just in considering my scores and grades to the averages there, I am pretty sure that I will be accepted. Do you not think this is valid? If so, please let me know what you think I should do.
Also, I am aware that there is Greek life at those two schools. There is also Greek life at William and Mary and Richmond. But at Dartmouth, UVA, and W&M, the percentage of students that participate is fairly low–this is what I meant/ what I was looking for. At least, all three schools said that the percentage of students involved is pretty low.
@nmocha567, according to my quick research, University of Richmond has a 31 percent accept rate, and the 75 percentile scores are pretty high. If you have high scores, yes you are likely to get in there, but the problem is once the accept rates get too low there is a lot less predictability in whether you will get into any one school. Because their early program is ED, you won’t know until it’s too late to apply elsewhere. If you think you are a shoe-in there, you also have good chances at William and Mary and UVa, but those schools also do not notify before the RD deadline.
I didn’t look for your stats but I would caution you and the OP, if you are going to load your list with reaches you should get yourself accepted early somewhere so that you don’t come up empty handed if things don’t go well. If you aren’t applying early to a safety, then I would recommend having two picked out that you can apply to if your early app to a match/reach school isn’t successful.
I was pretty confident my kid would end up with multiple acceptances, and I was right, but I still insisted that she apply early to a safety to avoid being shut out just in case we misjudged everything. Even if it’s not your favorite school, it is a nice bit of security to have an acceptance in hand as you go into the super-competitive application process.
@mathyone Thank you for your insight! I am definitely thinking that I should add something else to my list, then.
@nmocha567 Based on my
own personal experience (my son was wait listed) I would not consider UR as a safety school. It is a really
hot school now and is attracting lots of high stat US and international kids. You
should apply there anyway by 12/1 but
consider
it as a match school for your stats.
I agree with others that you need at least one or two true safety. If you like W&M, maybe Elon would work or American
U (which is also getting popular)? If you like Georgetown, maybe GW, Catholic University or Villanova might work as a safety?
Good luck!
You need to apply to a true safety, somewhere where you are almost guaranteed to get in. That would be a school with at least a 60% or 70% admission rate. CC is littered with stories of people who considered their matches safeties and ended panicking when they where admitted nowhere. In Virginia I would recommend applying to the University of Mary Washington a pretty school in a pretty town with a solid academic reputation as a true safety. My son was denied from all of his reaches and many of his matches. He goes to Vassar which I highly recommend.
@nmocha567 I just realised that you are also looking for significant financial aid. Therefore, while you are likely to get accepted to UVA, W&M and UR, you also need to cast your net a bit wider for Merit Scholarships at slightly lower ranked schools. Check out UMiami, Fordham and Northeastern to see if those schools might meet your other preferences.
Just an international student comment passing by…
Need lots of aid applying to 10-15 schools some of them are ivies/top tier, many of them have competitive full rides there are no safeties HYSM is more affordable than community college cries in the corner 
James Madison University might be worth looking at as a safety for high stats VA resident and would have in state tuition.
Thanks to all of the advice!! All of the recommendations are great, and I’ll be looking more into all of them before reaching a consensus. Thanks again!
@londondad Thank you SO MUCH for your suggestions. I’m now seriously considering Fordham and feel that it would be a great fit financially and academically.