You need to secure affordable colleges soon.
If you’re from NJ, apply to Rutgers, TCNJ or Rowan depending on the major you’re planning to apply for; apply to 2 from Miami-Ohio, ASU Barrett, UAlabama, UNew Mexico, UUtah, Truman State, Temple, UMN-Morris, USouthern Maine, UMaine Orono. College of Wooster and many CTCL’s would also likely offer nice scholarships. Apply EA - the best scholarships tend to be for students who apply by Nov 1 or 15.
Finally, VanderbilT and UChicago should be on your list since they’re the only ones with the same selectivity as those on your list that also don’t require the Non Custodial Parent’s financial forms.
Talk to your dad personally: where does he envision you attending college? How much does he think Rutgers costs? Princeton? Pomona? (Many parents have no idea and honestly think you can “work your way through college” the way they did in the 90s, thinking it an experience that’ll teach you life, etc.]
Will he co-sign loans for you?
Try to figure out how he’s seeing things: is he trying to get back at your mother by punishing you? Thinking you should “work your way through college”, not knowing it’s no longer possible?
(Not that you should take on loans but just to see what he’s willing to do).
(I don’t know whether you know Sarah Dessen, a YA author. The moon and more is about a girl who dreams escaping to NYC and leaving the family business, and her deadbeat dad who a year before the novel starts promised her that he is starting to reconnect with, that he’ll pay her tuition at Columbia if she gets in. When the book starts, it’s the beginning of the summer and the girl, Emaline, is working for the family business, beach rentals in NC, so you kind of think she didn’t get into Columbia and wonder what happened with her dad. Boyfriends and escaping to NYC also feature prominently. Not a masterpiece but a good escape book that’s still relatable for a kid with a difficult dad and college problems.)