If your parents don’t have a lot of investments or savings, you may get fin aid from some of the top private colleges. As said above, your parents should take the time this summer to enter their financial data into the Net Price Calculator (NPC) on college websites to see how much they might have to pay for the colleges. Each one will be slightly different.
Outside scholarships are hard to get sometimes, but you and your parents could research those opportunities too, in addition to finding colleges that offer merit. Also, school guidance counselors often get information on local scholarships being offered. Awards exist for art, music, community service, STEM, ROTC, church, etc. H&R Block hosts a “Budget Challenge” game each winter for high school students, and they awarded 66 $20,000 scholarships this year. My son participated, and a friend won one of those - just for playing an educational game over a 3-month period. They also won $2,500 for their school. The kids learned a lot about managing their personal finances in the process. Great game, even if you don’t win. They did it with their AP Econ class. Maybe one of your teachers or counselors would be interested in organizing it at your school during senior year.
Some outside scholarship applications require as much work as complete college applications, but both of my children funded part of their educations with them. One was full-tuition ROTC for a private college. The other won $28K in scholarships from professional organizations - one related to STEM and two related to his dad’s work. We only wish now that he had time to apply for more! A few kids I know won scholarships ($3,000 range) from local adult service organizations. Others we know won money for creating computer apps or winning programming competitions. See what scholarships your parents and their friends’ companies/volunteer affiliations offer. Since my kids did not qualify for fin aid, we were pleasantly surprised to find some outside scholarships that were not totally need-based.
Most of my children’s “safer/lower match” colleges did offer significant merit scholarships and some honors programs. The largest college merit scholarship they received was half-tuition. They are basic white boys interested in engineering with stats similar to yours. As you heard, some colleges, like Alabama, automatically offer full-tuition just for having a certain test score and GPA. The Univ of South Carolina and Miami of Ohio are also both generous to top students like you. Northeastern, Bucknell, RPI, Univ of San Diego, and Univ of Miami were all good to my kids with merit $, as well as our in-state universities. Even USC in CA gave each kid a token amount. But, two girls we know got full and half tuition scholarships from USC (for Engineering), both with similar stats to yours. Apply to USC by Dec 1 if you are interested. In fact, apply Early Action at any colleges that offer it, if you can.
Research more than just on College Confidential. Make sure your parents get really involved, as their investment in research time now can save a lot of money later.
Best Wishes!