I really just wanted schools that have a lot of academic freedom, some research opportunities, and access to top faculty.
I realized I preferred mid-size to larger schools, generally 3k+ undergrad population.
I ran the npc for most recommended universities, and schools over 55k I took off the list (namely UCLA and HMC). Schools that were on the higher end I compared to other schools on the list that I had a high chance of acceptance and were lower cost and decided many were not worth the extra cost compared to those programs.
I also only picked OOS public schools that had programs that I really liked, eg (UVA echols scholars, UMD gems honors program, etc)
Picking reaches was honestly the hardest part because I didn’t want to just throw a ton of schools, so I decided to put schools that are known for being interdisciplinary like Chicago, Brown, and Northwestern.