“Find a safety that you love! Instead of visiting 10 reach schools, visit safeties!”
I think this is important enough to restate. Remember two things need to happen before you can attend a university. You have to be accepted and you have to be able to afford it. You need an “Ace in the Hole”. I think this is especially difficult for the high stat student because frankly they are qualified for nearly every school. in my opinion top students need to reverse the effort they put into searching for schools. Most of the effort should go into finding that ace in the hole school, next should be the excellent match schools that your chances of acceptance are good (affordability may still be a significant question) and the least effort should go into those schools where your chances are low because they are so selective. I may be wrong but I can’t help but believe that most students applying to mostly reach schools are doing because of ego not for any practical reason.