@lostaccount, don’t worry. Over the four months or so of my research, I have considered before what you are saying by asking my parents if I could go to a month-long camp. They actually said yes, just as long as I called a lot. So I am not too worried about that, but I will of course keep that under consideration.
@panpacific Thank you so much for the advice. I have considered multiple schools and found that Midland has the best financial aid solutions out of all the schools I liked, so I am not too concerned about money. So now to parent beliefs! While my parents would miss me, they know that I am responsible enough to take care of myself and are currently teaching me how to do laundry, etc. They wouldn’t want to have to constantly be paying for plane tickets or driving for 14 hours, so I made sure to look within a 7 hours of driving range. I just think the only thing that they would be deeply worried about is if I’m safe, which is why I’ll be stressing how certified the schools and staff are. Also that link to that forum was great, it gave me hope that my parents would agree to letting me go after seeing how in so many families it was the kid’s choice. :-bd