right now i am going to be a sophomore next year, so i have three years to figure out a decent plan for my educational goals. i plan to take about ten ap courses throughout high school, fifteen at most, and i predict my gpa will settle around the top 7-10% range (my district is competitive). i am not in any athletics or really any clubs at the moment and i don't exactly know if i could get a scholarship for anything merit based. my parents earn a little too much for most of the need-based scholarships, but not nearly enough to pay full price for most good colleges. i do happen to be writing a book which i intend on publishing in my junior or senior year (not just for college appreciation, also because it is one of my passions), and i plan to make the underlying notions and storytelling pretty complex for my age bracket. can i include this side project in something like a transcript?
at the moment, after some research, i have settled on a goal to attend a&m because it has a relatively inexpensive tuition for how competitive it is, its politics are not too extreme, and i hear its business school is pretty prestigious, which is the subject i am aiming for. right now, with around $40k saved up, my family can afford to send me to community college for two years and then to a nearby college for my bachelors. however, my departure from the city and renting of my own living quarters is out of the picture because it is very expensive, and parents can't move with me because they have long standing jobs. cost of attendance for a&m is around $140k, which is around double our family's yearly income, and just seems more like a fantasy than an attainable future.
if you guys have any advice (clubs to join, summer/weekend jobs to pursue as a student, ways to save more money in this economy, etc.) i would greatly appreciate it. thank you!