Hey @tru988 - I don’t know much but here goes with my best advice/thoughts for you.
- Since you have been home-schooled and taken online classes for two years, were there any online teachers you were more well-acquainted with that others? Those might be good people to ask for recommendations. Or see thought 2 below.
- Since you want to study to be a medical interpreter I would encourage you to start taking some community college classes "in person". It's easy to hole up with the internet but interpreting will require you to spend time working in person so it would help you to take a community college course and see how that goes. Your cc faculty would then also be people you could ask for recomendations.
- When you fill out FAFSA you will do so as a non-dependant. So your income is all that will be counted. That means your EFC will likely be zero (unless you have substantial assets) but not all schools will meet full need. In particular, I think a lot of online programs have large percentage of adult students so their ability to meet full need is limited.
- You will need to take standardized tests. My advice would be to get a self-study booklet, take a test and see how you do. Then make a plan over the next year to get yourself test-ready and college-ready. The higher you score on those tests the better your chances for admissions and financial aid. Especially as a student with a history that is outside of traditional schooling you will need decent scores to prove to schools that you are ready for school.
- I would encourage you to look at college prep as a challenging project - make a plan, get out a little for classes, get yourself executing self-study steps to be college ready, check your financial aid forecast once you have some idea of your scores. It's a lot to do on your own but every trip starts with the first step. You can do this if you make those steps and keep going but it will take work and effort and "putting yourself out there".