So I was born and raised in Virginia and I lived here all my life and I hate it here. I’ve always wanted to go out of state for college and I really want to attend the University of Central Florida (UCF) because it’s my dream school and I can feel like I can thrive down there. I’m currently a sophomore in high school and my last day of school is on Thursday and in September I’ll be a junior. Freshman year I’ve struggled and my final GPA was a 1.6, my sophomore year I did better but not as good as I like especially for UCF. I’m currently not doing any extracurricular activities yet but that will change as I’m planning to do things this summer for college. As a rising junior I’m starting to explore my options, I really don’t want to go down the Community College route but it’s like I may have too. I’m really going to work really hard my junior year and practice for the SAT. I do plan on applying to UCF next year but if the worst was to come then I’ll decided to go Community College and then transferring to UCF. I’m really interested in Valencia College because they have a program to where if I was to go there and get my AS then I can get guaranteed admission into UCF when I transfer. I thought about my local Community College here in Virginia but they guarantee admission into Virginia schools I don’t wanna stay here in Virginia and they don’t do well for out of state transfer’s. Yes I do know about the out of state costs, yes I do plan on applying for Florida residency and I do know the process as I want to make Florida my permanent home, and yes I know I’ll have to get my own place. My attended major is Criminal Justice! Sorry this was so long 
If the reason you are in Florida is to attend community college then you will not qualify of in stste tuition at UCF or any Florida college.
How will you pay for college? And will your parents support you financially? If not, you are not being realistic.
There was a young woman who very carefully planned to go to a community college out of state. She did a lot of research and covered all of her bases. Her thread is somewhere in the archives. It’s a rare bird of a thread because very few college applicants go through the meticulous research and planning this person did.
So, yes, your plan is possible. But it involves a heck of a lot more work to
bring to successful fruition.
The first issue is money. How much are you and your family willing to pay for college each year? I don’t mean loans. I m asking how much you all are going to pay out of current assets and earnings for college?
Then, you need to know how much colleges and the government are going to expect you to pay. Fill out a FAFSA EFC estimator and find out what the government expects from you. That’s the Expected Family Contribution, the EFC. That is just about the least you will be expected to pay and very few people get enough aid to pay just that amount. But it does let you know if you are eligible for certsingrants, such as the PEL.
Then fill out the NPC for schools that you are considering like UCF. I think you’ll see that OOS public schools like UCF give little or nothing to OOS students. You may end up with just the federal entitlements, no school money at all.
The question, then becomes, can you afford this?
You need to do the same for any FL community college you are considering.
I have not researched what the rules are and their enforcement for community colleges and USF in terms of getting in state residency for tuition purposes. It’s often times not as simple as just becoming a FL state resident for voting and tax purposes. You can get residency for that, and some colleges still will charge you OOS rates and you may not be eligible for certain in state awards.
Note that I am taking your ideas seriously, and addressed what you are planning first. The fact is, given info you have shared, my opinion is that you would do a whole lot better staying in VA and going to CC or other college there. If you have good grades, you could apply to transfer to UCF or other school. Right now your chances of getting into UCF are a lot better going that route. You have not gotten your grades up optimally yet. That’s a big issue here.
It is very hard to establish residency in another state independent of your parents when you are under 24, with a few notable exceptions (i.e. Utah’s path to residency for college students, and SIUC’s option for OOS students to be classified as IL residents). One exception is for students who have served in the military. Military service is also a possible route into the law enforcement and criminal justice sphere. Obviously it’s not a commitment to consider lightly, but it’s worthy of at least a look at the pros and cons. Pursuing your degree at UCF, with independent status and GI Bill funding, could be an excellent plan post-service.