@cherryboyy - given that you have safeties on your list that you are presumably willing to attend – there’s no harm in applying to high reaches or long shot schools.
And all colleges will look at your SAT scores “in context” – that means they will consider your ethnicity and the demographics of the school you come from along with everything else. And it also does mean in context with your area of interest.
Colleges do admit students whose test scores are at the bottom quartile as well as at the top. In fact, for any measure, 25% of enrolling students have scores in the bottom quartile. My daughter graduated summa cum laude from Barnard, and her math SAT was 580.
But the point is that the colleges admit students who are offering something attractive to them. If you don’t have the scores, then there needs to be other factors in the application that make the case.
So yes, these colleges are reaches and odds are that you won’t get in – but that doesn’t mean that you have no chances at all. The downside is that you have financial limitations and application fees get expensive – so you might want to limit your reach applications to the two or three schools where you have the best shot, unless you are able to get application fee waivers.
Way back when, my daughter wanted to apply to Brown but I refused to pay the application fee. I was happy to pay for colleges where I thought she had a shot, but I didn’t see it at Brown. She was able to get a fee waiver and did apply, and was – as anticipated – rejected.
I understand the value of looking for schools with generous financial aid policies – but you need to be able to articulate why you think the school will accept you over all the other class valedictorians with impressive credentials and even higher test scores. What do you offer that all those other students don’t?