Most schools with good financial aid will need both parents’ income and asset information.
If they may not be cooperative, or their money is drained by divorce costs, you need to build a merit seeking list.
This is a tricky situation because this girl is under the custody of the state and going back to her father at the same time of a divorce. Someone local will have to advise her, perhaps an attorney. It is obviously best for aid to be an orphan or a ward.
This student needs to apply to many of the Test Optional full need schools.
Holy Cross, as mentioned.
I think Wake Forest as well.
Are any of the all-women’s colleges?
What are some others?
Bryn Mawr, Smith, Mount Holyoke are test optional women’s colleges.
If a St. Timothy winner with that GPA, family situation, ethnic profile and class rank doesn’t get in Holy Cross then there is no hope.
Bates, Bowdoin and Connecticut College are all full need and test optional.
Here is the thing about targets and safeties- you would need to be more concerned I think about financial rather than academic safeties. As others have said, you will need to look more closely at your financial situation- more so than your SAT and grades etc.
For financial safeties, your best fallback is a community college. Second would be a public 4 year but even that can be pricey at your income level. There may be some private colleges (other than full need met) in Mass that give scholarships based on a holistic appraisal of the student rather than purely SAT and gpa but you would need to start researching that. Some will choose a group of students and then have them enter an essay contest or something similar to earn a full tuition or possibly a full ride scholarship.
The ones that are purely based on the numbers will be much tougher for you.
Also you may want to check with your parish for diocesan scholarships and also for local scholarships that are not tied to a particular college.
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/dependency is the FAFSA criteria for being dependent or independent of parents for college financial aid purposes. Check on whether being a ward of the state makes you independent (which would be a good thing). However, even if that is the case, check each college to see if it uses the FAFSA definition of independence or has its own definition. Even if you are considered independent for financial aid purposes, many colleges won’t give you good financial aid.
Thank you all so much! It means the world that you guys are so dedicated to my college application process 
@ucbalumnus - I am in a tricky situation. Right now I am in a foster care situation. But, I am moving in with my dad in a few weeks, so technically I’ll be in his custody, so by the time I’m applying to schools I don’t think I will still be involved with DCF. 
Edit: I just looked on the FAFSA site and it seems that I will be an independent student because I answered “Yes” to: “At any time since you turned age 13, were both your parents deceased, were you in foster care, or were you a dependent or ward of the court?” It says that at that point I do not have to provide my parents’ information!
Try taking the ACT it might be a better test for u
Also if you are willing to go out of state Berea college offers full tuition for all accepted applicants and may also offer other aid. It’s in Kentucky though:
Here is a statement on costs from their website:
“Last year’s entering class paid an average of $1,234 for the full year.”
By the way, Berea does offer more scholarships to students from the Appalachia area, but they do also offer some for students from other areas and states so still probably worth looking into.
Here is one more, this one in Mass.:
Here is a listing of catholic colleges across the US that you can view and clicl on the college website and then look for financial aid info for full scholarships:
Not saying you should limit your search to catholic colleges (as I mentioned full need colleges are good ones to apply to) but since you have holistic (non-statistical) factors that can help you and you are coming from a Catholic school, that may play a part in helping with scholarship decisions in your favor at these colleges.
Here is one that is very different- a tiny catholic college in New Hampshire. I think 60 students? But if that’s not an issue, they base a full tuition scholarship on an essay:
http://www.thomasmorecollege.edu/admissions/financial-aid/faith-reason-scholarship/
I go to Stonehill College and just want you to know that with your grades, you will ABSOLUTELY get in. I was accepted in 2012 with a GPA of 3.0 and a lower SAT score. I did not take the ACTs.
You have a lot of extra-circulars under your belt, and I think you look like a promising student. You will no doubt get into Stonehill and UMass Amherst (Bridgewater State is a given, but I’d say you would want to go to a better school). Stonehill does not have a specific special education program, but they do have a lot of classes that would likely help you get to a career in that field. I am not sure about UMass Amherst but I am sure that they are more likely to have a program you’d be interested in.
You are very likely to get into a good school. You’d most likely get into a school like Northeastern- I’d say apply. I don’t know a lot about schools that are out of state if you are interested in those.
Good luck! You will be fine!
I believe that I am leaning more toward PoliSci and International Business now as I’m a Special Education Counselor at my local high school’s summer program for special needs kids and, it’s a great job, but it’s not what I want as a career. Stonehill is my top choice and I feel so comforted to know that I should be able to get in!! Would you still recommend Stonehill and UMass in those fields?
You’ve gotten some great advice here. Have you run the NPC for Stonehill? They’re not able to meet full need, though they may not be too far off, and you have special circumstances and a compelling story. You should add in some of the reachier schools mentioned above, which do meet 100% of need and are more likely to do so with grants than loans.
Holy Cross should be your priority if staying in Massachusetts is a goal.
@hs2015mom it would amount to about $23,000 but I sincerely believe that my grades, letters of rec, amount of volunteer work in the Church, the Saint Timothy Award, and my passion for the school will help decrease that cost. I’m in LOVE with the college and hope to apply Early Decision in the fall. I also know one of the priests at the college, Fr. Rick, who highly recommends I attend
I’m glad that you love the school and already know a priest there, but ED is a binding commitment, and $23,000 is obviously a no-can-do. You can’t just apply ED on faith Maybe you can meet with admissions and financial aid, and explain the particulars of your situation not captured by the NPC, and get something IN WRITING from them about what your financial aid will be, so that you’re protected if something goes wrong in December and will have a basis for a negotiation and appeal.
@hs2015mom isn’t it true that the college would have to notify me of my financial aid prior to the contract being solidified? If not, I will apply Early Action, but I definitely want to meet with counsellors regarding my extreme amount of need and my inability to pay that amount of money
ED is NOT binding if it will cause financial hardship. If you are accepted anywhere ED and the financial aid is in your opinion insufficient it is not binding. You simply decline the acceptance.