Will colleges want me?

You can’t afford to build a list of vanity schools in “hip” cities that are tremendously expensive and seriously competitive. Your dream shouldn’t be bright lights big city.

It should be those schools that give you the best chance for your dream career. Those schools where you can dominate and get stellar grades and have the highest chance of a medical school acceptance. And be a place where the cost of living is reasonable, the travel costs low and net price affordable so you are not saddled with debt for the first leg of a marathon race of education.

Where can you get merit aid? Where can you get your need met? Where will you be in the top quarter of the applicant pool so you can earn merit aid and get a lot of financial aid as well.

Will this be “lower ranked” schools? Probably. But they will be the right schools to ensure your path to your dream career. No one asks a doctor where they went to school for undergrad.

what schools have you visited? what do you want out of college? waht can you afford? ask those types of questions

also - just base selectivity on ACT almost all schools take one instead of the other and your ACT is a higher percentile

I can’t suggest safeties until you have a clearer picture of your finances. What can you afford? Does it look like you will get need based aid on the net price calculators? Do you need a large merit award for a school to be affordable? Also, it isn’t real clear to me what your criteria are. Have you visited any schools? You can get to med school from many, many colleges (all of the listed on this forum so far, I think).