I like your story, I like your writing, and I’m really rooting for you. That said, you have to take budget into account. Undergrads can only take out about $5500/year in loans the first year and it inches up year by year, but still maxes out around $7500 for senior year. The federal government limits federal loans to around $27k TOTAL for undergrad.
But what about all the massive loans you hear about in the news? Those are usually cosigned by the parents, and it’s based on the parents’ financial information. If your family’s expected contribution is $0, it’s not going to qualify for additional loans.
So unless you win the lottery between now and May 1 of your senior year when you need to decide where you’re going to college, budget is a factor (and that goes for 99% of families in the U.S.). Go back to post #43. The colleges in the likely/likelier pile are ones I think you might stand a 50% or better chance of getting in. The ones in the possible pile are ones I think are probably somewhere between a 15-50% chance, in my opinion. (And use the common data sets to help yourself try and figure out where those schools go based on your likelihood of admission.) I don’t work in college admissions and nobody (especially me) can tell you where you will get in for sure and whether it will be affordable. But these schools will get you 90-100% of the way to where you need to go financially, and they’re good schools.
So definitely look at Bright Futures and your Florida options. Definitely look at Questbridge and other programs for first gen students. But if you’re saying you want to see what else is out there that might work for you, take a look at post #43 again.