When I started figuring out how to build college list, I had like 22 schools on a spreadsheet and half of them were there for no real reason. What helped was making 3 columns: must-haves, nice-to-haves, and dealbreakers.
Then I cut any school that missed a must-have or had a dealbreaker. After that, I sorted the rest into realistic reach/match/likely groups based on my actual stats, not vibes.
My best tip: don’t build your college list from rankings first. Start with fit, cost, location, majors, and whether you would honestly be happy there.
I ended up with a much shorter list that was easier to research and write supplements for.