Yes. PSAT score puts me in range for National Merit, as far as i’m aware. My NMSQT index of 223 is above the 216 required to qualify.
Thanks for the resources!
Most schools track historical admissions data in SCOIR (or Naviance). You can lookup a school of interest and compare your stats to previous applicants from your high school. Here is an example of a SCOIR chart. Each school can customize what they will track so yours may have a bit less detail. For example, our school just tracks Accepted, Denied, Waitlisted… but not where a student will attend.
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As NMF, add University of New Mexico to your list.
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That’s really cool! I never got around to exploring SCOIR, so I appreciate the tip.
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Massive thank you to @AustenNut for the full-ride scholarships link and to everyone else who helped me find target/safety schools and financially safe options. Might be slightly off-topic, but I’m feeling a lot more optimistic about the admissions process now.
I’ll keep this thread updated with upcoming SAT scores, scholarships, etc. in case anyone is interested. I have a gut feeling that it’ll go well if I’m just prepared. Here’s to hoping!
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That’s a great attitude! I get invested, so please keep us updated.
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Public state schools in your state are likely to be among your lower cost options (although it depends on your state – be glad you are not in Pennsylvania), but if you need lots of financial aid, those in other states are less likely to be among your lower cost options, unless they offer big merit scholarships that you are able to get (if you make NMF, the list of big scholarships increases).
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I’ve been looking into a lot of high-value private scholarships (in addition to things like Stamps) but I’m realizing now that scholarships like Gates are only announced after EA/RD decision deadlines.
Does that mean I can’t really count on them? If i’m only applying to a school once I know for sure I can pay it, doesnt that make the scholarship kind of useless?
You cannot count on competitive scholarships. Period. They are awarded to a small fraction of the kids who apply for them.
Most scholarships, including competitive scholarships offered by colleges, do not announce winners until Feb-Mar timeframe.
That is why you apply to safety/likely schools (high chance of both acceptance and affordability) and also reach schools. You won’t know about the reaches until March.
So FL schools, NMF schools, auto-merit schools are extremely important for you to research and apply to the ones you think you’d be happy attending.
The competitive scholarships are taking a risk for a high reward. They require a lot of work and usually have earlier submission deadlines. Many also require interviews if you are selected as a semifinalist. It’s a great payoff if you’re awarded the scholarship, but you have to apply knowing you can only attend that school if you receive the scholarship. A lot of us have been there. 
My D was accepted to highly competitive school but did not get the highly competitive scholarship so it would have cost $70k… she moved on. But she did not regret trying.
As a NMF, you have so many options that many kids do not. That is something to be proud of, along with your excellent grades. You have affordable options within the NMF scholarship schools. If you’d be happy at those, you can forego the extra work of the uber competitive scholarships.
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Yeah. Ill research NMF & Florida for sure. What is auto-merit?
Schools like Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, and many others will automatically award merit scholarships based on your grades and test scores. It’s not a competitive situation…you know upfront what they will be offering.
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Some schools provide automatic scholarships based only on high school GPA/SAT.
Here is an example at Alabama.
https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/out-of-state/
Others are Miami-OH, Univ NM, etc. I’ll see if I can find a link to a list.
Edit: cross-posted with @CCName1 
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It is reasonable to apply to reaches (both admissions reaches and & affordability reaches) as long as you also have some sure things (for admission AND affordability) that you would be happy to attend.
Unfortunately, you are in the position that the majority of students are: you can’t afford to ED anywhere. (You can EA, it isn’t binding.) This is one of the reasons many (including me!) don’t like ED. Schools imply that you can a higher chance of admission if you ED & they like it because it gives them certainty on enrollment numbers. But the only people who can afford to ED are people who don’t need to rely on uncertain merit. 
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Is the Gates scholarship happening?
Are you Questbridge eligible?
Im not Questbridge eligible unfortunately. I didnt see anything in the Gates website that said it wasnt happening, but I might be out of the loop.
Also, does anyone know of any good CS target schools? I have safeties and I definitely have reaches but I need a few pointers for financially reasonable targets.
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Really, I think between your low budget situation and your National Merit situation, your list is not going to have many, if any, “targets.” Either the schools will be Florida schools, NMS schools or auto-merit schools (all financial safeties and admissions safeties except for University of Florida)…or reaches (e.g. MIT would be barely affordable with loans, but a super-reach admissions-wise, other schools might be a target admissions-wise but a super reach because you would need to win their competitive scholarships.)
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From everything I read on CC, CS is remarkably employable from any program. Selectivity of undergrad is meaningless. Hopefully others with more CS experience will chime in.
I often see UT-Dallas mentioned as having a strong CS department… it is one of the NMSF schools so would be a safety/likely.
@DadOfJerseyGirl I think you know CS/stem? This student is NMSF with a $10k budget (but $35k EFC). So looking at auto-merit or NMF scholarship schools for CS.
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UT-Dallas does have a strong CS program. It also has its Computing Scholars Honors Program which offers a lot of opportunities: The Computing Scholars Honor Program
My S22’s friend from high school is a Math/CS double major at UT-Dallas. She is there on the NMS full ride, and thriving. The honors dorms are very nice, and the school has a fun, smart, nerdy vibe. No big sports (just DIII) and almost no frat/sorority participation, which for her is a positive.
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OP, thinking of your chances for schools’ competitive scholarships (STAMPS, Presidentials etc.) I went back and read your ECs from your initial post. Many of the competitive awards value leadership and service. It looks like you have the leadership part, but maybe not the service part. In particular, given that you must be fluent in Spanish, I wonder if you could find a way to use your Spanish at all in a volunteering/service capacity. (As an example, my own kid had a volunteer job at a food shelf where he helped Spanish-speaking elderly people fill out the required computer forms.)
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