I also see lots of good advice here. I’m responding because your geographic parameters and home base match ours. We are in the South Jersey area right across the bridge from Philly. Our kids applied as far as Michigan, upstate NY and North Carolina after initially considering schools from Chicago and eastward. We have three kids all involved in theatre - our youngest will graduate next year from his BFA program. Having Ohio, NC, and NY and everything in between as options will actually make the final decision making process somewhat bearable. Thinking down the line, you know that if you really feel you need to visit, you might have 2 or 3 school visit trips done at one time, long drive trips, but doable.
That being said - we found some starting points such as curriculum (what kind of academic experience does your child want or can they tolerate while studying in their program?) and finances to be critical issues. That whittled down our list. For one of our kids we really didn’t give enough validity to the curriculum aspect. Our list could have been different if we had adhered to the qualifier of “Yes, you can get accepted academically, but can you handle the academic rigors once you are in the program?” Environment probably was the third qualifier, small/large, broad college experience/conservatory, rural/city, etc. Keep in mind it takes some digging to really get a good picture. For example, small town college doesn’t necessarily mean rural.
For the schools on your list which are already mentioned on this forum, I would use the individual school list here on CC and contact folks directly for their honest opinions and info. (I don’t think we even had that school subforum when our oldest was exploring) I found it much easier to speak directly to posters here with very specific questions to get concise, current answers. Those folks will most likely have also considered some other lesser known schools not mentioned so often here, and you might gather info on those schools from veterans of the process. We considered schools rarely mentioned on this forum. We also were fortunate to connect with parents and kids who were kind enough to arrange in-person meetings if we did finally visit a school. I know some people don’t like that approach because it can make it more emotional, but it did help our kids in the long run. We, in turn, have been able to do the same for those coming up after ours as they audition or explore, before they are even accepted and considered a prospect. Our kids are boys and a girl, chose BFA and BA programs, had some disappointment, but overall were very fortunate to have some great choices from Division 1 School programs down to smaller class of 8 programs, conservatory and non. This forum and the folks willing to share their knowledge made it much more manageable. We started this process in 2004, when our oldest was a high school sophomore. Much has changed since then, but some constants remain. Good luck to you and I’d be happy to help with any of your questions if you care to connect!