U.S. citizen applying from abroad

If many students at your current school apply to colleges and universities in the US every year, then your own guidance counselor should be able to tell you which places are likely to admit you. Go meet with that person. Unless the friends who have been telling you where you can and can’t be admitted are former students with profiles just like yours who also applied to all of the places you have been thinking about, they really aren’t in any position to advise you.