One student’s report on how choosing to follow the money can turn out very well.
Many many students choose college which give them strong scholarship offers. This is another story about a student going to a “safety school” and finding out it was a great choice.
http://www.thecollegiateblog.org/2013/07/24/student-stories/
To the OP: You’re too far away from making a decision. You don’t know what your goals in life or college are yet (and trust me: they will change) and that will have an impact on your decision. Nor do you know if you will have any big scholarships or get in to a school like Emory (I think both are tougher to achieve than you are imagining). Also, you are limited in how much you can borrow without your parents cosigning.
The main thing you may want to worry about right now is doing well enough on the PSAT junior year to qualify to be a National Merit Semifinalist. That would qualify you for full-tuition scholarships from several schools.
If you seriously want to be competitive for top scholarships, you probably should put quite a bit of effort into ACT prep. Yes, you are only in 10th grade, but realistically, there are plenty of kids that are scoring significantly higher than that in middle school for the different talent searches. http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/docs/intensive_eligibility.pdf Those are the kids you will be competing against.
But, you have great instate options that are affordable. And like @irlandaise pointed out, there are top students to be found at publics. Our very high performing son is a freshman at UA and loves it.
If your parents won’t pay and you’re on your own, then you don’t have a choice. Gone are the days when a student could self fund through a part time job and a loan. (Do your parents know how much college costs these days? By the time you’re enrolled, it should be between 35 and 70k a year…)
Scholarships aren’t common. There are full tuition scholarships (and some full rides). Are your parents willing to pay for test prep - and which kind (Advantage? Private tutor?)
Howard has full rides, for example. Check out the criteria for full rides at UAlabama, UAB, UAH, Auburn. Look into U South Carolina’s Honors Program and its perks, Pitt and its scholarships. Essentially, start looking at colleges with strong honors programs and scholarships.
However, full rides and even full tuition scholarships are not common - over 99.5% don’t get one. What will happen if you don’t get such a scholarship? Will your parents assume you won’t be going to college?
Just living at home and commuting somewhere costs money. In fact, they should at a bare minimum be willing to pay the same for college as they would for you to live at home - they may have other priorities than your education, but they can’t expect the college to pay that for which they’d pay if you were living at home, right?
^ Exactly. There’s a lot said about Alabama, especially in regards to its education, and while much of it is unfounded or outdated stereotypes, I feel that the quality of our public universities is vastly underrated.
@MYOS1634 at the end of the day my parents will get loans if completely necessary. And despite my post/question I understand the harsh reality that I will be faced with if I don’t get that scholarship or don’t even get accepted to my dream school, but at the same time there is absolutely nothing wrong with having high expectations. My grades may drop like someone else said, my scores may never increase, dream school may change, etc. but no matter what there’s nothing wrong with trying to get information ahead of time or try to plan ahead. I have alternate future plans as well if things do not go as I plan, but as of right now I will do all I can to get that scholarship, free ride, and anything else. I’ve learned a lot from this thread alone and gained some good insight, and this alone has motivated me to work harder. 
A little bit of both, I guess. You want a college that has some level of prestige, but is relatively affordable! Ultimately, the most important thing is whether you know if you’ll thrive there and you can afford it w/o taking out too many loans!
It’s good to plan (EC’s will factor in, for instance), but it’s also very dangerous to fixate on one school when it depends on earning one of very very few full ride scholarships.
You should absolutely strive for that, but start looking for honors colleges and scholarships. Be aware that deadlines will be Dec1st or even earlier at some schools.
And do ask your parents, don’t assume: what will happen if you don’t get a full tuition scholarship? if you don’t get a full ride? If the only full tuition scholarship you get is at Howard, or at another far-away college? Or at a college they haven’t heard of?
(I highly doubt they’d apply for Parent PLUS loans if they have the money to pay, for instance. But would they be eligible for Parent PLUS? Are they willing to take that on for 4 years? Just ask and make sure.)
22 sophomore year is hardly amazing. I took it in 7th grade and got a 27 and I don’t really consider myself “bound to get scholarships”
^That was really neither necessary nor helpful to the OP.
My point is that OP is perhaps overestimating herself and her abilities.
There are better ways to convey that point, and that has been mentioned in this thread already.
Regardless of whether the OP is overestimating himself/herself, the reality, based on high income parents who will not pay, is that s/he must find a school where s/he can get a large enough merit scholarship*, or not go to a four year college at all. So the targets (GPA, PSAT for NM, SAT/ACT) are roughly known, at least.
*Or otherwise free or low cost like military service academies, ROTC scholarships, or athletic scholarships, but those are highly selective, perhaps more so than many other large enough merit scholarships, even if the OP is interested in them.
Or sign up for the NJ National Guard. No tuition required at NJ schools.
No tuition required at IL colleges after 1 year in the IL National Guard.