what second-tier colleges should i consider?

<p>Have you tried looking into U.S. News?</p>

<p>Also, assuming that you fail to get into any of those schools (not that you will), would your next choice be a top-ranked public school, or a lower-ranked private school? In terms of public schools, the schools you should be applying to would be your state’s flagship school (like Berkeley, if you live in California, for example), and other public schools that you might be interested in (California: UCLA, UCSD, etc.). In terms of private schools, I would say roughly the schools ranked roughly between #17 ~ 35 would be second-tier? Don’t apply to all of them; pick a few that you like. If you like living in the city, perhaps NYU or USC would be good fallback options?</p>