Hi, everyone!
Thank you for all of the advice. I’ll work on changing my list up, and getting better grades this upcoming semester.
Let us know how it goes! You are polite and upbeat, and take difficult advice with a great attitude. Adults on this board really like to help students like you who are open to learning, adapting and doing your best. Keep us posted and I’m sure there will be no end of people to give you suggestions and guidance along the way.
You are getting good advice here. Financial aid is going to feature heavily in your ability to go away to college. The most generous schools, particularly the ones on your list that guarantee to meet full need, use CSS PROFILE as well as FAFSA to determine what your family should pay. Your mother’s financials, as well as any for step parents if they exist will be needed and taken into account. Those NCPs do not take that into account.
You need to talk to your GC about your chances for UIUC, and what kind of money you can expect from them. You can afford $6k from parents plus $5500 in loans, along with 1/4 of your savings plus what you can earn. , comes to about $22k. That isn’t going to pay for UIUC without the school and/or state throwing in some more money. You need a safety school that you can afford. What are some of them for kids from your high school? Perhaps you can commute to some such schools. Some might have generous merit money. You need some sure things in the bag.
I do not see how UM and UW are options. They are not likely to meet your financial need and they do not have much merit available.
Not knowing what your mother and (?) spouse make , it’s difficult to estimate what your aid package may be. Sure, take chance on a few schools on that list, Barnard and Smith look good. Smith even has merit which Barnard and Wellesley do not have. So Id leave Smith and Barnard on your list, maybe add Wellesley which would be a super high reach for you.
You need to add some schools that offer close to full tuition scholarships for the rest, imo. That’s what may be affordable. Still reaches, made even more so with the need to get the merit money, but give it a go. Look at Agnes Scott, Carthage, Drake, Beloit, Susquhanna, St Lawrence . For some state schools that give good merit money, look to Pitt, Miami of Ohio, UMD, Michigan State. You need big money, not small scholarships; they are hard to come by.
Yes, most colleges will require your mom’s info – Barnard definitely will. If you have talked to her about what she can contribute, it means that you are in contact with her and there are no grounds for an NCP waiver.
So here is what you have to do – you need to find out basics about your mom’s finances (is she employed? what does she earn? any other significant assets like cash in the bank or home equity?). For Barnard, you would want to run the NPC twice, once with your dad’s info and once with your mom’s info. Then basically add the family contribution figures you get from each run together. In other words, if your mom earns the same as your dad, then the amount that the college will want you to pay will be about double what you saw on the NPC with only your dad’s financials included. Has your mom remarried? Things start to get pretty complicated when you have two divorced parents plus their respective spouses involved. The college will want everyone’s income disclosed.
Take Barnard off the list. I cannot imagine that the finances will work- and even when they do, being a student on a very limited budget in NYC is going to be a source of frustration (I did it, but things were a lot cheaper then). Agnes Scott is a great idea btw- there was a poster on here this spring who needed a lot of aid and found Agnes Scott very flexible to work with (this poster needed extra funds for health insurance if I’m remembering correctly).
You’ve got a great attitude and that will get you far in life.
If you like womens’ colleges, look at Agnes Scott.
Have a look at Simmons, which is a smaller women’s college in Boston proper.
They give merit and some generous ‘named’ scholarships.
Thanks, everyone for the compliments. I really appreciate it. My mom is not remarried and my dad estimated that she makes about $20,000- $25,000 (he doesn’t know for sure though because that relationship is very strained). Also, she doesn’t have any other dependents, and she is suppose to pay $4,800/ year in child support.
Out of the colleges you all have suggested Carthage, Drake, Susquehanna, University of Pittsburgh, Miami of Ohio, the University of Maryland, and Simmons have the majors I’m looking at. I’ll be looking into those options more. Sadly, Anges Scott does not have both of the majors I want 
(Philosophy & Environmental Science).
For my current list, I have taken off Wellesley College and the University of Michigan due to all of the advice you guys have given me. Also, I added Hollins University to research more as a possible safety school. In addition, I’m looking into RIT as well.
Have a great day!
A place you should consider IF you would enjoy a very small school with a very alternative, service-oriented, outdoorsy and experiential vibe is Warren Wilson College in the mountains just outside of Asheville, NC. (Asheville itself has become quite a cool, artsy/folksy-alternative mecca in the last few years). Warren Wilson is strong in environmental studies and also has a major in conservation biology. You can get concentrations in Environmental Policy and Justice, Ecological Forestry, Environmental Ed., etc. Also there is a major in Philosophy. Not a women’s college but skews heavily toward women. Seems to have very generous financial aid with 25 full-tuition scholarships as well need-based grants and campus jobs (just about all students have them). I think your stats (especially test scores) could make you competitive for these. Rolling admissions. Gap years not only accepted but seem to be encouraged…the college actually has a dorm for post-gap-year students. Check out the school’s web site if interested!
Talk to Beloit College. They have an extensive Environmental Science program and they tend to give Good merit. Many Out of state kid’s go there and the school and merit is one reason. My daughter has many friend’s in this program and they all loved it there.
Also, Berea College is a well-regarded school where all students work on campus in exchange for tuition, (room and board, too, I believe). There’s a philosophy major. None in environmental science but there are minors in sustainability and environmental studies; forest resource management; law, ethics and society; and peace and justice studies if you should like those. Also, majors in biology and agriculture and natural resources should you be wanting to combine with the minors in a way that fullfills your interests.
The colleges are going to want the info direct from your mom - so I think you need to talk to her to confirm that she will be cooperative in filling out the appropriate financial aid forms. There is a way that she can fill out the forms where the info is kept confidential and not revealed to your Dad.
I’m not sure I agree with @blossom about Barnard finances – they were way more generous with financial aid than any other college my daughter was admitted to – even though it also was a stretch and well beyond what your father has told you he can contribute. But I had a big chunk of home equity that was pushing up our expected contribution – the real benefit is that Barnard used a formula for determining home equity that was very favorable to us. Although I paid the bill that came from the bursar for tuition and housing for the balance after subtraction of loans & the Barnard grant (and I also took out a Parent PLUS loan) — I never sent my daughter an allowance. She always worked through college and found NYC to be full of opportunities to earn money. So I guess the expense part comes down to how you see the work/school balance going forward.
However, based on the stats & info you’ve posted, I’d see Barnard as a significant reach for you – so the “getting in” part might be something of a barrier. GPA is very important to them – more important than test scores – and they place a great deal of importance on holistic factors. Plus admission is more competitive than Wellesley. (From the 2018-2019 common data set, Barnard admitted 13.9% of applicants, Wellesley admitted 19.5%; average weighted GPA for entering students that year was 4.12) You might want to look at the admitted students threads for Barnard to get a better sense of what the credentials of admitted students looks like. And look at Bryn Mawr or Mount Holyoke rather than focusing on the upper end of the selectivity range for women’s colleges.