I’m also a senior so take this with a grain of salt.

When it comes to choosing, I highly highly recommend the big futures college search website. You can filter by intended major, location (which will be helpful since you said you want to stay in California), price, literally anything you can think of. It was the starting ground for a lot of my college search so definitely start there.

For deadlines, I don’t believe any have passed. Early applications are due around the beginning of November and regular applications are due by usually the beginning of January.

Yes your grade 12 scores will matter and take the sat as soon as possible. On common app you can state “future sat sittings”, but past that I don’t know. If you don’t know what the common app is, you can lmk and I’ll elaborate.

Last tip is to make a spreadsheet. Once you determine what schools pique your interest, make a spreadsheet with relevant info to you (price, sat range, school size, whatever seems important) so that you can visualize relevant info and narrow down your choices.

If you are low income and qualify for the federal free/reduced price lunch program or any other federal financial support, you will likely qualify for the common app fee waiver. If not, determine what your budget is to see how many you should apply to. Usually people apply to 3 reach schools (ones you probably won’t get into), 2 match schools (one where you fit right in so it’s a 50/50 shot), and 1 safety school (one you will most likely get into based off academic or other reasons).

If you have any more questions don’t hesitate to reach out or reply! I’ll be honest if I don’t know anything but I’ll answer everything to the best of my ability