Right now, you and your friend should try to develop an idea about your future career. This isn’t a final decision, you can still explore alternatives and change your minds for several years yet–but having a clear goal now will improve your long-term chances of success even if you do change your minds later.

Your high school counselor might have some career tests available, but from what I’ve seen, high schools sometimes don’t have the best ones. Contact your nearest community college and ask if their career development office will advise you–usually they’ll be willing because they consider it both community service and also recruiting. Those career counselors will have the tools to tell you what career you might find rewarding (not just financially but in terms of enjoyable workdays), what the projected demand and salaries will be, what to major in for that career, and what colleges/universities offer that major.

Then you can steer yourself toward a college that is very respected in your major. For most careers, the smart route is to start at a community college and earn two years of credit to transfer to the four-year university; my own firstborn is doing that right now and even without any more financial aid, his entire four-year degree will come in under $10K.

If you don’t want to start at a CC, apply to no more than four colleges: one or two that are tip-top programs but might not accept you, one that’s almost certain to accept you, and one that accepts everybody (as a safety net). Applying to more than that is just a waste of application fees.

Taking SAT/ACT late in junior year might be best, or very early in senior year at the latest. You want to get your college applications in very early in your senior year, getting accepted in the fall will give you a shot at a wider range of financial aid (some scholarship applications have rather early deadlines).

The major government sources of aid–the ones that need the FAFSA form–you can’t apply for until your parents do their taxes for the calendar year before you’re starting college. Depending on your parents, that might be April 15 or even later if they apply for the automatic extension. Try to get the FAFSA out before you finish high school.

There, I think that covers all your questions.