Florida State has a remarkably good religious studies program (I’m most familiar with its strengths in American religious history). Your overall GPA might make it a difficult admit, even with the upward trend. So if that’s what you think you might want to do, you might consider starting at a more auto-admit campus (80%+ admissions rate) or a CC and transfer to FSU if your interest in religious studies continues.
I would not recommend looking into New College. The politicization of that campus in recent years means that it is not what it once was, especially in the humanities. I suspect that in the future, this will hurt grad school applicants coming out of that school (worth keeping in mind if you are considering graduate study).
You can go to the community college associated with FSU and it has many benefits like living in dorms shared with FSU students, access to some FSU /FAMU student activities (not sure about football tickets), seamless transfer of credits, etc. My daughter had a friend who did this and was very successful in her transfer to FSU after two years.
And of course you can use Bright Futures if you qualify for that at some level.
With two poor years vs one good one, your best bet would probably be community college. Two strong years of grades there would show colleges that you have really changed. State schools always provide transfer opportunities from state community colleges since they are all part of the same “family”.
New College appears to be pursuing the Hillsdale model, and Hillsdale is generally strong in traditional humanities, such as history. The politicization of New College may not be conducive to free inquiry, however.
I actually don’t think the New College is pursuing the Hillsdale model, which is intellectually rigorous, even if it’s from a narrow perspective. As you suggested, because of the degree of state intervention, New College has effectively become part of the political apparatus of Florida, which defeats the purpose of free inquiry in higher ed.
There’s an interesting article I read that shows it’s not happened yet in part because of faculty resistance - but isn’t that what the entire state is headed toward? Or that was the fear. Hence Ben Sasse was installed at Florida before leaving and no doubt the state is trying to make similar changes at other schools.
If you truly have no budget I would look beyond Florida. Loyola New Orleans may be a better target. Georgia Southern. Samford. University of Southern Alabama.