Hi Waldo. just wanted to say I greatly admire you for helping out your father with the business and still ending up getting a 3.4 gpa with prereqs completed – and for Comp Sci! That is something I’m sure the UC’s will really appreciate and prize.
You don’t need to worry about admission to UCSC if you tag with them and if the tag is accepted. Without Tag, I’m sure you will have the chance to explain your situation and challenges you have had and how you overcame it all.
For Scholarships, your situation and story would be a great candidate and impressive (at least for me)! You will have to apply to a lot and explain your story and make it inspirational. Many of these scholarships have been made to help people with financial need backgrounds and so you may even end up getting a full ride or even more if you apply to a ton. Maybe if you took the next semesters light (but may need to be taken full-time if you apply for TAG), after you’ve applied, you can dedicate more time to applying for scholarships. There’s an almost unlimited amount of free money out there that is just waiting for people of most deserving and willingness to to go to University
The best thing for you to do however is to talk to a UCSC Admissions counselor as well as your own counselor. They’ll tell you if the 6 years is a problem which I don’t think it should be.
Best of luck!