Please provide your stats so that we can better help you. Your situation requires more than just advice regarding your dad and aid.
You mention being premed. If you’re 100% serious about becoming a doctor and it’s not just a romantic notion, then you need a sound strategy that includes financial consideration plus GPA consideration.
You are right to be concerned that UChi might hurt your GPA. There’s a parent who posts on this site whose daughter went to UChi as a tippy top student. In the end, her GPA wasn’t good enough for MD med schools. She didn’t even get one interview invite. Shocking for her parents as she had always been a top student in high school with very high stats and very high test scores. There are other top schools that are similarly problematic. I’ve recently helped two premeds (one from Vandy and the other from Duke) who had/are having a rough time during the med school app process due to GPA issues. The Vandy student finally got an acceptance off the waitlist last June (relief!). The Duke student is applying this cycle and hasn’t yet received any interview invites, likely because during her frosh and soph years, she received C’s in Chem and Ochem I , and a B- in Ochem II.
BTW…the Duke student had a perfect GPA and a perfect SAT in high school. She had acceptances to Harvard, Princeton and Duke. Chose Duke for merit scholarship reasons. Her med school app stats are 517 MCAT and. 3.4 cum/science GPA. Fingers crossed that her instate public med schools (NY SUNYs) will overlook the GPA because they’ll want her MCAT score.
In all of these “top school” situations, the students and parents lament the attendance at such schools as premeds. They are certain that if they had attended a very good, but lesser ranked school, their GPAs would have been higher. The problem with attending top schools as premeds is that all the other premeds are also tippy top students. It’s like competing in the Olympics. You can be great, but only the top 3 get medals.
What is your home state? What are your ACT/SAT scores and GPA? How much can your mom contribute each year towards college?