Are your parents lower income or with a low EFC?
Or do they have a high EFC they don’t want to pay?
If they have a high EFC, you need to tell your parents that if they don’t pay their expected family contribution, they may need to take on Parent PLUS loans. The cost of tuition has risen so much that it’s impossible to “self fund” - you can self fund about $10,000 ($5,500 loan which is what YOU are allowed to borrow + summer job + work study/on campus job) whereas the lowest cost universities are $25,000 or so. The difference is where parent loans or savings or payments come in. Students can’t do it alone anymore like they could even 10 years ago.
Will they take on the Parent PLUS loan? Will they be willing to chip in for food, rent, gas money, books, anything? (After all, if you didn’t go to college and stayed at home, you’d cost them something so they could set that amount aside to help you pay for food at college, plus they’ll likely “claim” you meaning they’ll get a college tax credit which is supposed to go to you to help you pay for college, will they pocket it or will they refund it to you for educational expenses ?..) If they’d be willing to refund the tax credit and money for food, you’d be okay with some full tuition scholarships.
You could apply to UAlabama’s Honors College and with your current GPA/ACT score, you’d get into the Honors College and get Honors Dorm and an automatic full tuition scholarship, plus if you major in CS or engineering a semester stipend. The cool things are that it’s automatic (not competitive: all applicants who meet the requirements get the scholarship) and that the Honors College is very good, with many Honors classes.
With your ACT scores, you also stand a good chance at Pitt.
(If they request a Parent PLUS loan and are denied, YOU are allowed to take $4,000 more in loans).
If not: are you a NMSF?
If you’re lower income and they can’t pay anything because they make too little, you only have 2 weeks left to apply through Questbridge. If selected, you’ll get a full ride scholarship at some of the country’s top colleges.