hello! wow, this is a lot to go through haha
first off: thank you so much for such a thorough and extensive reply. i genuinely haven’t heard of some of these schools so i’ll definitely be looking into them and what their financial/merit aid is like.
i don’t plan on telling my parents the truth until i’m either in my last year of college or completely out of school & financially stable; it is a giant risk, as they have found out before and it has had some severe consequences.
for the time being i doubt they will refuse to fill out my fafsa. i will call the aid offices of some of the schools you mentioned and ask what they can offer if i’m unable to fill it out though.
my SAT for march was cancelled today, so i’m aiming for may/june and hopefully by then i can increase my score to at least a 1500.
thank you so much for all of this help and the school suggestions, i really appreciate it (: <3