Fantastic list of options. Assuming you are a highly able student, the weeding out problem may or may not pertain to you, especially if you have lots of AP experience behind you and excel at math and maybe physics.
You did not specify your interests, but now is the time to spend a few hours on each schools website to figure out exactly what classes you will need to take in various majors, what kind of electives or tracks they offer. Plan out some campus visits or attend open house events with some focus on the departments of interest.
The advice to investigate admission to various majors stems from many smart students going to schools that require high GPAs for entrance to popular majors like CS or EE or all engineering … and then not quite making it or stressing out … it is hard for some students to make the transition to college and get a 3.5 or 3.8 or compete for a slot in CS or EE based only on freshman year grades (and that means forgoing AP credit to stack your GPA deck which may not be your thing, it may be more “fun” to take advanced math than take Calc 1 again in hopes of an easy A … which isn’t easy in many top schools).
If cost is a factor, you should run the net price calculator for each AND check tuition rates are totally current. There is wide variation in what is included on various websites, including some glaring errors on USNWR tuition prices … I would track that in a spreadsheet for each school … if say GaTech is much more favored than Purdue … maybe spend the extra money.
Climate and city vibe also very important. Safety … etc.