<p>You’re a junior and you’re competitive for a 4 year college. UMich “meets need” for its Michigan applicants, so you really don’t have anything to lose if your family is lower-income. You can apply to UMich, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, to a community college, and (why not?) to some private universities or colleges.
Since you’re a junior, you also have plenty of time to retake the ACT.
Community college CAN be a cheap solution but the downsides of being a strong student surrounded by lower-achieving classmates is that you may not stretch yourself enough and may not get the study habits you would get at a 4-year college, another issue, if you’re taking a lot of AP courses, is that the community college may not have classes that match your needs (you’d have to make sure you won’t run out of advanced classes and what the articulation agreement with UMich is - could work out but check); in addition, the best financial aid goes to freshmen, so that two “free” years at the CC + 2 years with less good financial aid at UMich may not end up being such a bargain (if indeed you are lower income and would thus have all your financial need met at UMich if you got in). In your case it may well be cheaper to attend UMich if you take in all 4 years. In short: consider 4 year costs as well as value.</p>