Just to reiterate/summarize, you basically have three gating factors:
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What could your family hypothetically afford, according to meets-need schools? (for this, you do the online calculators and/but/also plan for failure – there was a very long thread last year that should serve as a cautionary tale.)
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What are your parents actually willing to cover? If they are at all sketchy about this, err hard on the side of caution. It would really suck to think you have a plan and need to reconfigure in August (or halfway through freshman year).
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Taking 1&2 into account, where are you likely to get in and want to go? This is the more fun part of the exercise and I don’t blame you for fantasy-shopping right now (heck, I wish my son had been even half as interested) but ultimately 3 is an exercise in frustration if you haven’t solved for 1+2.
More notes:
–there are a ton of “meets need” schools but their definition of need and your parents’ idea of what they’re willing/able to spend might not align.
–I wonder if sitting down with parents + school college counselor to get them on same page could be a good idea. Parents need to know what things cost/what your chances are. School college counselor needs to get a sense of what you’re up against if parents are stubborn/unhappy about idea of paying more than small set sum. Parents should also be aware of what borrowing limits are for students – if they’re assuming you can take out $150K of debt for undergrad, go to med school, become a rich doctor (LOL) and pay it all off, they probably need a reality check.
–I think you might be well-served at this point to do a bit more career exploration. Med school is hard + $$$$ path and if the goal is a stable, well-paying job, there are probably safer/smoother options. Any PhD program you’d want to do will pay for itself but if you’re thinking about academia, you’re looking at x years of PhD + at least one and probably two postdocs and then a frustrating job market. The biology PhDs I know have mostly segued into biotech and pharma. Anyway, I think a lot of people in high school don’t have much sense of what the job landscape currently looks like – what do people do? this would be a great thing to learn more about, in part b/c it will shape your school search.
For the ultimate cautionary tale, skim this thread: Chance me ED 2 Boston College, US[+Canada] citizen from small Canadian town weak ECs[4.0 UW, Test optional]
It’s a lot, but there are clear takeaways:
–figure out now answers to both 1) and 2) : what do schools think parents can afford, and what are parents willing to pay?
–since your parents are already being a little vague about this, have in your back pocket a couple of fail-safe options. They may not be your current dream schools but they need to work for the scenario in which parents say “what tuition?” or the FAFSA result looks different from what you thought it would. @AustenNut is a genius at sussing out options you might not have on your radar and @tsbna44 is one of the great CC bargain hunters.
Looking forward to helping you figure it all out!
Oh, one final thought – the mental health stuff sounds non-trivial. For me, the question would not be “should I mention it in applications?” (probably not, would be my thinking, but others such as @Mwfan1921 will have better-informed answers). Instead, I think the question should be “how can I put myself in a position to make the most of college, which would include stabilizing mental health to the best of my ability?” So, for example, a filter I might use when looking at schools would be on-campus health resources, access to pharmacies, state laws about prescription refills and/or remote therapy if you’ve found someone local who meets your needs, etc.