Thanks, everyone! I’m currently looking through all of your suggestions.
I’ve talked to my parents about this before, but like mom2collegekids guessed, they’ve been quite vague. My dad has run a few NPCs, and (with the exception of HYP) they tend to put our EFC at ~35k+. They do have nearly 30k saved for me right now, which is great, but our monthly budget is pretty tight and I’m unsure how willing/able they’d be to take money from that. Based on my conversations with them, it seems to depend on the school. Right now, I’d guess we could swing $20k a year tops, including student loans.
Although the financial safety in question isn’t my state flagship, it’s comparable in quality. (The flagship’s too expensive & doesn’t offer more than ~4k in merit.) COA is about 27k in-state, but friends with lesser stats have gotten more than enough merit aid to make it affordable for me. Its IR program (possible major?) is well-established. I’d be content going there. My main issue is that for years I’ve held college as a sort of ideal, where people will care about classes, want to discuss academic topics outside class, etc… & Based on feedback from friends, I probably wouldn’t find that community in the honors college there. Students are bright, but pre-professional & overwhelmingly concerned with grades.
I don’t think it will be much different anywhere else that’d give me enough merit, and I know to be grateful for what I have, but I’d still like to believe that community exists somewhere.