Glad to hear that you’re making progress. This must all be very stressful, and on top of that you’re handling the rather harsh feedback on this thread with a lot of grace.
To MYOS’ point about “trading up,” have you run the NPC for some full-need-met schools like Georgetown and perhaps some other transfer-friendly schools that meet need? (I don’t know what your criteria would be, but suggestions from one “listicle” of transfer-friendly schools include Emory, Cornell, Notre Dame, Tufts, U of Richmond, Vanderbilt, and Wesleyan.) It would be good to know how much better your financial situation at more-elite schools would (or wouldn’t) be. It sounds as if you would have stellar recommendations in addition to your perfect GPA.
It sounds as if you’re going to try to make a go of it at American this fall, and I hope that works out for you. If it’s still a big stretch, though, and your costs at these “reach” schools would be more favorable, it could be worth putting in some applications (both to reach schools and perhaps to your in-state flagship), and then possibly considering taking the spring semester off while you assess your options. It sounds as if you’d qualify as a junior transfer even without completing the full year this year, so continuing at American in the fall does not have to be an all-or-nothing proposition in terms of completing the entire year.
Good luck; I hope you keep updating this thread