Honestly if you think that UNC and NCSt. are academic safeties then I would focus on those. Getting into somewhere like Columbia is a pretty big reach (definitely not impossible though), I think it is easy to underestimate how many applicants Ivy’s get. Even after getting in those schools are very expensive, and if you plan on leaving the area the value of the name drops a good bit. However with somewhere like UNC you have a top public school (cheaper) in the country, and an equally recognizable name to employers.