Projected ATAR is 97 (top 3%).
School needs to be intellectually stimulating and co-ed - definitely don’t want to attend a single sex school.
Most of the schools listed in post #13 do offer a lot of financial aid,; however, they represent a wide range of FA policies toward international students. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale are among the only colleges that for internationals are both need-blind in admissions and claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need. At the other extreme, UMichigan doesn’t offer any institutional financial aid at all to international students (according to its 2014-15 Common Data Set section H6.)
Also, many of the schools listed in post #13 do not offer communications majors.
At the undergraduate level, most of them focus on the liberal arts (either exclusively, or in combination with engineering and possibly a small number of other pre-professional majors). If you want a selective Chicago-area university where you can major in communications, consider Northwestern instead of UChicago.
https://www.communication.northwestern.edu/programs/major_communication_studies
Okay, with that projected ATAR, you can look at the whole range of schools in the top 60 (national universities) and top 100 (LACs) + strong Honors Colleges.
Do you want a preprofessional major (Communications) or do you want to study subjects that will allow you to work in Communication? In the US, many Communication majors tend to be, err, less serious than what an ATAR 97 would suggest.
@stanfordgoalz,I’d have to agree that you need to take a step back and rethink your strategy.
- First, you need to understand how financial aid works for internationals. As noted, there are 5 schools (Amherst, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale) that are need-blind for internationals, meaning that they don't consider your financial need when they admit you. They also guarantee to meet your full demonstrated need. By all means, apply to these schools, but don't get too distracted by need-blind versus need aware.
Plenty of internationals are admitted to need-aware colleges with substantial financial aid. The key is to look for schools that “guarantee to meet full demonstrated need.” Based on your family’s documented financial information, the school will calculate how much financial aid they think you need. If you are from a low income family, then this is the easiest way to secure substantial financial aid.
These schools guarantee to meet full demonstrated need for internationals: This is not an exhaustive list, but a good starting place. They are all academically excellent schools, that are interested in admitting high achieving internationals.
Amherst, Brown, Chicago, Colby, Dartmouth, Davidson, Duke, Grinnell, Hamilton, Harvard, JHU, MIT, Macalester, Middlebury, Penn, Pitzer, Pomona, Princeton, Richmond, Rhodes, Stanford, Swarthmore, Vanderbilt, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Williams, Yale
Merit scholarships which are not income based are also available to internationals at some schools, though full-rides are rare. Some state universities don’t offer any financial aid to internationals. Check their websites for more information.
- Second, put your long-term goal of working in fashion PR to the side for a moment. Your immediate goal is to get an American liberal arts education (as opposed to a pre-professional education at a place like FIT). At most American colleges you don't declare your major until sometime in your sophomore year. You may end up majoring in communications or in something else. You don't have to cross that bridge yet.
- Third, summer internships and jobs at fashion brands and retailers are available all over the country. It may be helpful to study in New York or Los Angeles, but don't restrict yourself just yet. The most direct way to secure an internship in the fashion industry would be to study some aspect of fashion, but since that isn't what you want to do, then concentrate on getting into the best college that you can afford and tackle the ins and outs of getting a job in fashion PR later. If you intend to work in America, eventually you'll have to face the visa issue, but that's a challenge for another day.
- This organization is very helpful in advising international students who wish to study in the US. They have counseling centers in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne. https://educationusa.state.gov/centers/educationusa-america
Thank you so much for your advice everyone. You have been really helpful. I’ll definitely look into Northwestern!
You made some good points @momrath. Thanks for taking the time to write all of that 
The reason I’m looking to major in Communications or Marketing is it will enable me to keep my options open - aka I can go into fashion PR or any other sort of PR, whether than be celebrity publicist, startup marketing, the options are endless and I would like to have that freedom.
Many of the top schools don’t have Communications or Marketing majors, considering them more pre-professional than academic.
Students at top schools who want to go into these areas study a variety of different fields: literature, journalism, business, finance, economics, etc. and try to forge industry connections through summer internships.
In the US, many people in PR and corporate communications are former journalists, who have very strong writing skills and understand the way media works. But again, many top schools don’t have undergrad journalism majors, and those that do (Northwestern is a good example) are very, very competitive.