Have you visited any college campuses? If so, which ones? What were your impressions?
I’m hoping that making a visit to some Portland area schools would be pretty easy for you. While there I would check out Reed, which is very much a fit school, so don’t think of it as emblematic of all LACs. But if it’s a good fit for you, and the NPC comes back affordable, I think it could be a good addition to your list. Lewis & Clark has what I think of as more of a “typical” LAC vibe, and would be good to visit to see whether that vibe suits you. If neither of those end up appealing to you at all in real life (not necessarily the programming, but the size, vibe, opportunities, etc), then a liberal arts school may not be the right fit for you.
Additionally, I would definitely visit U. of Oregon and Oregon State. Same as with the LACs, see if those end up appealing to you (size vibe, opportunities, etc). That lets you know how you feel about bigger schools.
If you end up liking both types of schools (and you think you’d like something in the middle as well), then I’d craft your college list so that you have options for all of those types of schools at various levels of selectivity.
So you would have at least one LAC, one big state school, and maybe one medium-sized one school in the likely/extremely likely category. Then perhaps repeat in the toss-up area. Then perhaps repeat in the low/lower probability categories. Of course, if your favorite examples of those schools happen to be in the likely/extremely likely category, there’s no need to add others where chances of admission are less likely.
Moreover, I would give some serious thought to your application list strategy. First off, think about how much time you will have to devote to college applications. You do cross country/track for 15-20 hours/week year-round, you’re in robotics (decent time commitment), chess club (5 hours/week), you’re doing various competitions and other activities, etc. All of this is on top of attending school and completing your assignments in a way that will be consistent with your current GPA.
College applications at the schools with low admit rates generally have many additional supplements required (or “optional” which generally means required if you want to be admitted). I’ve heard of schools having upward of 6-7 additional supplements requirements (including colleges on your list). Multiply that by all the low/lower probability schools on your list and you’re looking at 120-140 extra supplements. And this is on top of all the stuff in your “regular” life. Additionally, not only do these supplements need to be completed, but they need to be completed well if they are to be an asset to your application.
So basically, think about the amount of work that will be required to do submit a strong application and then think about what kind of bandwidth you have to devote to the applications.
My other comment is to reflect on how you respond to rejection. You are a very impressive candidate and whatever school you decide to enroll in will be lucky to have you. The low/lower probability schools have far more strong candidates apply than they have the room for. The vast majority of the strong applicants to those schools will receive a rejection/waitlist. Some people thrive on rejection, because it fuels them to be even more amazing wherever they land. Those individuals can have a very reach-heavy list. I think that most people tend to be hurt and upset by a rejection. Most people can handle a certain amount of rejection, but the more rejection they get, the harder it can be to bounce back. I find that most people tend to do better with more acceptances than rejections. You are the only one on this board who knows yourself, but I would give some serious thought as to how much potential rejection you can handle in a healthy way as you determine how many low probability schools to include.
And here I’ve written another lengthy post and haven’t offered many more suggestions in terms of schools (though I did mention Reed ). But just wanted to give you some additional food for thought with respect to how you want to build your college list.