Graduating Senior — I Really Need Help

I’m currently a high school senior and I need help regarding my financial aid package for college.

A bit of context, throughout all of high school I was told that I didn’t need to care about the cost of secondary education and that my parents would take care of it. I really pushed myself in school under the impression that I would end up where I wanted. The process of applying to college was a struggle because on multiple occasions my parents, specifically my dad, lied about his income and had me fooled for months thinking I’d be eligible for some low-income opportunities like Questbridge.

Only far too late in the process did he come clean when I had to beg him to do the FAFSA. Total household income is near 200k and we live in a HCOL state as a family of four. Even later during the process once I finished applying did he come clean that there’s actually no money saved for me to go to college and whatever the cost is, I’m footing the entire bill, no co-signer, nothing.

Ignoring the nightmare logistics of somehow making enough money to support myself, I got accepted into my dream school, in my favorite city in the world. It’s such a fantastic fit for me, I can envision me anywhere else. My other option is my state school, which I hate with a passion. Ugly campus, big sports culture which I don’t care for, somehow half our graduating class ends up there.

Now my biggest problem is my dream school isn’t giving me financial aid because when I applied I was still under the impression that my parents were going to support me. That’s not the case anymore and it’s driving me nuts. I’m being sent around by adults either telling me there’s NOTHING they can do or I should suck it up and go to state school, but if I resigned myself to going there I wouldn’t have tried to get into my dream school with a less than 10% acceptance rate.

What I really need help is, how can I appeal my financial aid package and who do I talk to if I really need help? I think I can present a case for extenuating circumstances because CPS was previously involved because of my parents I have multiple counselors speak to me over the course of high school because they knew my situation at home. I don’t technically qualify for a dependency override because a) I couldn’t get a job before my green card came and b) there’s no way I could survive off of the salary my two job offers after graduation are proposing. When I called my dream school’s financial aid office, they said they can’t consider me for scholarships since my dad refused to fill out the CSS profile (it’s was really, really awful getting him to do the FAFSA). I’m going to spend some time after school emailing people in more senior divisions at their financial aid department who could grant me the Professional Judgement Review I need.

My dream school would cost me 274k all four years (💀) and my state school would cost me 60k. I know in comparison to price it’s a no-brainer to go to my state school but I want to go as far as I need to in order to get aid from my dream school so at least I don’t regret not trying.

And please don’t suggest community college, I’ve literally had a guy tell me he sent his daughter to my dream school and then proceed to lecture me on why I should go to community college so just so you know I’ve already been through the worst of that discussion.

TLDR: How do I get financial aid from my dream school so I don’t die of loans in my 20s and 30s?