The OP did say this:
He doesn’t seem to care so strongly about the do or die for college that he is willing to put in too much more effort beyond the 9 applications he gave his best to,
and
Otherwise, he’d like to explore non college route options like certification in programming (one of his skills) and freelance work, something entrepreneurial. Who knows. I think if a person is motivated enough to learn and succeed there is more than one way of going about doing that. He has certainly surprised us to date with some of his successful ideas.