This all depends on what you bring. No matter what you’ll have room and board -so that’s likely minimum $15k but could be more.
Looks like Cal Grant A would only cover tuition - and that’s if you qualify. You may not.
Please have that talk again with your folks. Until you settle in on that they really can’t help vs maybe thru have $20k a year or $40k, etc it’s hard to move forward.
Wait a minute. On the one hand, you’re saying that you must go away to college, that living at home while you attend college is just not possible. OTOH, you now say that if you DON’T go to college (including living at home while attending college), your parents will kick you out.
From what you’ve said, I get it what’s going on. You’re unhappy living at home, you want to get out of there, and college is the easiest way to do it… but you’d have to get a massive amount of fin aid or merit money, and unfortunately, your academic record means that is not going to happen. You CAN continue to live at home and attend college nearby, either community college or maybe a CA state college, but you don’t want to live at home. And now you add that your parents aren’t going to let you live at home unless you’re in college (or working, I presume).
I get it. We all were 16/17 once, and chafing to get out of the house. But you’ve got to look a bit further down the road, towards the best way to get qualified to earn a decent living, and be able to support yourself, so you can become independent. The best route towards that is going to be community college from home.
Your assumption that if you’re low-income, there’ll be financial aid to help you, is pretty unique to California. It’s true there, for lower income Californians, but rarely elsewhere. So you were not wrong, you just didn’t know what what you could assume as a Californian is the exception and a privilege that most other young Americans do not enjoy, alas. It was a valid assumption and you may feel KO right now from the realization.
Californians can go to CC tuition-free if they qualify for CA College Promise (CCPG) and they may even apply for financial support for books; they can be awarded Pell Grants and subsidized federal loans from the federal government and “bank” them to use when they transfer to a CSU or UC.
https://www.cccapply.org/us/money/california-college-promise-grant
That’s pretty unique - even in NYS where students may get financial aid, there are way more conditions (like, be in the top 10% of your class) and in some states financial aid depends on test scores (1400+ generally) regardless of financial need. And of course this applies to instate applicants - people from other states who want to attend a CA public college must pay full costs, unless they’re part of WUE which allows them to pay 1.5x (and mostly at specific, non restricted campuses).
So, if you want to attend a large college, it has to be instate because other large public colleges will not be affordable (they, too, focus on their own state residents).
The good news is that it means you can go to college 
in CA 
Some CCs have dorms but they’re often rural. It might be better for you to live at home or with relatives and commute. But you can explore options.
California CCs tend to be good and have a clear path AA-> CSUs or UCs. But not all are equally good - College of the Siskiyous, which has dorms, is also pretty abysmal at getting it’s students to a UC/CSU.
Now, if you want to attend a more residential CSU while living on campus, there’s Cal State Chico and Cal State Sonoma, which have nice dorms and more students living on campus. Sonoma State also has the Hutchins Program, which has one of the highest graduation rates (you do Hutchins for gen ed+ your major).
https://hutchins.sonoma.edu/
An alternative, which is unlikely to be as inexpensive as free tuition CA CC, is University of New Mexico. It’s out of state and in a city.
After that, if you want to go OOS, it will have to be smaller colleges that MAY have enough financial aid for you.
Both for UNM and smaller private colleges you’ll need the highest possible test score so you should register with College board for Question of the Day+start working with Khan Academy ASAP; get Erica Meltzer’s books (Reading, Grammar, practice - for the Digital SAT); dedicate 1 hour each day to SAT prep.
Now, what colleges? And do keep in mind they may not be affordable but they might. Apply RD (in January or February) so you can present your first semester grades. You could even apply EA if you’ve cleaned up some of your grades. Unlike UC/CSUs, these will take your 9th grade grades into account as well as your 12th grade 1st quarter or 1st semester grades.
Consider
Ursinus, just outside Philadelphia
Marist, 1h30 to NYC
Muhlenberg, 1h30 to Philadelphia
Duquesne U and Chatham U, both in Pittsburgh
Agnes Scott (*) and Ogglethorpe both in Atlanta [hopping city, ASC excellent for queer youth]
Hollins
Goucher
Run the NPC (net price calculator): would any of those be affordable?
(*There, apply EA with 1st quarter grades and complete all the possible SUMMIT essays to maximize scholarship odds)
Yay it’s confirmed!!! They are “unable” to help with college funds. I’m on my own
You got it. It is more than just “want to get out of the house” tbh. Just the thought of staying here another 2-3 years makes me want to melt.
So in reality, you can go to community college and live at home or work at Starbucks or Target or another who offers online school.
Other than the military, I can’t really think of anything else. The military would secure funds for a school out of state and you’d learn skills that are marketable.
Or you can skip school for a few years and save up some money. But college will still cost too much.
Sorry.
CC and living home are likely your best route - but if HS was a struggle socially, college will likely be very different.
I researched CSU Chico and I am thinking of applying because of the cheap tuiton, I’m not sure how the other costs will factor though
Did you run the NPC via that link I gave earlier to see how much aid you might get there?
I know a couple of students who have gone there and loved it.
If you don’t qualify for aid, tuition and fees are a bit over $9K.
But even if you do, how will you pay the actually inexpensive they quote - near $13K to live.
Apply - but you need a plan - who is paying the $25K plus for tuition, room and board - and then you have to get there, etc.
It’s ok to apply and you can work in summers, etc. to help defray - but it’s not feasible if you have no money.
But there are WUE schools in cities that might get you a similar cost - you noted you wanted to be in city.
Yeah it was, but college will of course be different I hope
it will - but don’t set yourself up to get excited about a place you have no way to attend. If you have a path to Chico great, but if you don’t, don’t give yourself heartache.
I was waiting for my parents to provide specifics, I forgot lol. Let me do that
Let them fill it out. Sometimes parents don’t want you to see or know their full picture.
Because they have no money? Have you run the NPCs? Because financial aid awards don’t rely on whether your parents want to pay - only on what their income/assets indicate they should pay.
So, if your parents make 50k, you’ll receive a lot of financial aid instate. If they make 200k and don’t want to help? Not the same thing.
OP did say low income in first post so unlikely to be the latter?
Only my dad actually works, they claim they have nothing to give but yeah around 55-60K per year
I did the net price. It was 15,313 for Chico
I agree with you here
So basically free or close to free tuition with your expense for room and board.
It would require summer, winter and other jobs to pay, plus loans.
To me, too risky but, you could take that chance. But there’s a high likelihood you’d have to drop out
Better would be go to CC and work and save and set yourself up for the last two years - where you’d keep working.
Unfortunately, that may be the only option if I choose to go to college atp