Dartmouth

Duke

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Boston University

University of Virginia

Emory

Northwestern

University of Iowa

The public Ivys like the University of North Carolina, the University of Virginia and the University of Iowa would be great choices for you. They offer large diverse student bodies, an excellent education at a relatively reasonable cost (even for out of state tuition), outstanding resources for students in the sciences and they’re each located in an ideal

(and safe) college town environment.

PS – You should probably apply to Rutgers just to be safe in case the financial aid doesn’t come through the way I’m saying (presuming you’re from New Jersey since you said you did volunteer work in Trenton), but you’ll probably get merit and/or diversity scholarships from a lot of very good schools, even if the need-based aid doesn’t work out.