Another parent who wishes you the very best. Your daughter is lucky to have such an intelligent, sensitive and hard working mom. You’ll be a great role model.
Apply to Rice and UT. You never know, the baby’s father may change his mind again. Keep your options open for now, apply to a variety of possible colleges, and in the Spring choose what’s best for your situation.
You sound like a mature teen and a terrific mother.
Remember that getting your degree will help your baby in the long run, so keeping my fingers crossed for you to have lots of avenues to get there. 
One thing you may not have considered. Since you have a child you are generally considered an independent person from a financial aid perspective. Unless you have significant assets/income on your own, that makes college - including room and board - practically free for you. That is a huge advantage to you if your parents are willing to help as well ; especially for paying for day care, incidentals, etc. while you are in class. You would normally stay in family housing at your university.
Since cost would no longer be a factor, you should look at universities that meet full need. That usually means in-state and private universities. You will need to check the individual FA policies of each university that you apply to.
Also, look into housing at UT-A… low-cost apartments for you and your daughter
http://housing.utexas.edu/university-apartments
and daycare options
https://childcenter.utexas.edu/
That’s the beauty of some of these large public flagships: many offer excellent housing/child care for their students who are parents.
I am very proud of you, I personally think you can not underestimate the family support you will need during college.
I, agree that you will be an independent for FA and this will help you greatly with FA.
If You do decide to go with nursing (I, too hope you do) then UTA or TWU (where I went). Both are great schools for nursing.
You will spend many hours on studies outside of class and your need for your sweet baby girl to be taken care of so you can focus is going to be very important.
Please keep us posted and we all are rooting for you!!!
^that only applies at Rice, since it’s the only school that meets need in Tewas
Your parents should use the money they are helping you with for college to pay for daycare and cost of living so you can maximize FA for tuition.
Apply to Rice. You have a good story.
I know Rice is a great school academically and gives good financial aid, but the Rice undergrad experience centers around the residential college system. With a child, OP can’t move into a college and may have a hard time finding her place socially.
A campus where the student life office thinks about the needs of both commuter and on-campus students would be better.
@AroundHere --agreed. And to move away from all family and support just seems to be a recipe for disaster. Most new parents benefit from the support of extended family. This is even more important for a teen mom.
This student will have good support in Dallas. There are a few schools where she will have full-tuition with her stats. Her parents said they will pay $15-20K per year. Hopefully the student can get the full tuition and then use the $$ for living expenses? Both UT-Arlington and UT-Dallas will have solid science/pre-med/pre-nursing classes so the student can get her feet wet so to speak and still have support.
This is only true if the OP is providing 51% of the support for the child. If her parents provide housing and meals, medical, etc then it’s doubtful the OP will reach that 51%,
A Texas premed with those stats can get a great education plus great merit.
Did you qualify for NMSF?
^PA is harder than nursing to do straight from college because PA MS programs require a certain number of clinical hours - usually a minimum of 1,000 to 2,000 (which is 6 to 12 months full-time or 1-2 years 20 hours a week). OP would have to become an EMT, paramedic, CNA, or other clinical healthcare professional before or early in college and then earn those hours while in college to be eligible to enter PA school directly after college. If her college had an EMT course and a volunteer EMT program that might not be too difficult to get (she could spread it out at 10-15 hours a week over three years, if she got certified in her first year).
Honestly, the best way to become a PA for a new undergrad is probably to get a BSN in nursing, work for a couple of years, and then go to get a master’s in PA. Most of the PAs I know and/or have been treated by were nurses first.
Have you considered academic science? I met a phD candidate the other day who was working towards a phD in microbiology while still being a single mother, and she was able to support both herself and her child through the stipend the school gave her.
Also, I’m rooting for you! You seem like a very mature person already, and making decisions that will benefit both you and your child is just amazing, and I wish you the very best success in the future!
As a female with a science PhD, I don’t recommend it for anyone with children or who is planning to have children.
Research careers are not family friendly and the pay is relatively poor.
Sorry it took me so long to respond, I was too busy to get online yesterday.
@TooOld4School I think I have to be responsible for 51% of all the money going towards her childcare, which I’m not sure if I am, to be considered independent. I’m getting all of that sorted right now.
@VANURSEPRAC Thank you! I’m leaning towards nursing right now.
@AroundHere That’s my issue with Rice, I don’t think it would be a wise decision for me because I wouldn’t be able to participate in the residential college system.
@mom2collegekids I did qualify as a NM Semifinalist
@oPhilippos I don’t think a career in research would be right for me. I really appreciate the suggestion though
Thank you all so much, again!
I believe that UNT gives a full ride to National Merit Finalists (you might have to name it as your first choice school - not sure).
UT-Dallas gives full tuition and a stipend for books for National Merit Finalists! I know you may like UT-Austin, but UT-Dallas will result in you literally going to college for completely free, and that could offset the financial costs of having a child.
There are some texas options:
http://www.thebestcolleges.org/the-20-best-colleges-for-single-parents/
http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/students-with-children/
Sorry to be replying to an oldish thread, but I just wanted to update everyone who was so helpful for me a few months ago
I ended up applying to UT Arlington and TCU in addition to UT Austin. But I was able to work things out and I’m going to be attending UT Austin this fall. It probably seems like I didn’t take a lot of your suggestions because UT Austin was my starting point, but based on your input I’ve done a lot of research into nursing and I’ve decided that’s what I want to get a BS in and go to nursing school.
Thank you all so much!
@alislauren15 – glad you have considered this deeply! So were you accepted into UT nursing school? They released a lot of their decisions last week.