“@socaldad2002 To reiterate what I said above, community college is not an option for me, unfortunately, if I want any support from my parents at all.”
Community College may have to be an option for you if your parents won’t pay what it takes to go elsewhere. That, or another state college that is within commuting distance , with you living at home are the lowest costs for you. With this pandemic changing the way a lot of schools are operating, you may even not have to commute at all or restrict your school choice to a place nearby as you may have online options for many schools. But your best deal in terms of sticker price will be your state schools.
Look up what the costs are for your state schools, starting with your local community college, local UT or other state school, and estimate what commuting to those schools will cost. That gives you some basic dollar amounts on what it costs if you go to the least expensive college options. Then work your way up to possibly going away to school. Start with the the UTs and other state schools. Some of the satellite state schools like A&M have some very inexpensive options even including room and board.
Then look at commuting to some private colleges like SMU or Baylor if you are in the Dallas area. Get a good idea of what your costs are going to be. Then work your way up to some OOS options, public and private right up to the priciest schools.
Make a list of these costs. Then start looking at what merit money is available for them. With a scholarship some pricey schools might come in less in cost than those with lower sticker prices. However, unless the scholarships are automatic with grades and test scores, they do become reach schools since you not only have to get accepted; you need to get what’s likely a competitive scholarship to be able to go.
You can share your list with your parents so that they can see what costs they are facing if they have aspirations of you going away to a private school.