Should I be applying for scholarships now?

I thought I had another year because I’m only a junior, but my English teacher told us that we need to start applying for scholarships and applying for college right now or we’ll miss the boat.
I plan to apply to NYU as my sort of “reach” school, but the one I REALLY want to go to. Their application deadlines are like April, but that’s for if I was going to attend college in August/September right?
Early consideration is November, and that’s what I was shooting for.

But I’m concerned about the scholarship thing…I only took the ACT for the first time in December because my parents didn’t understand that I need to take it more than once, including during my Junior year.
I scored a composite of 26 because I hadn’t had a math class in a year and only made a 17 on the math portion :(

I KNOW I can do better. I’m going to try to make a 32–34 next time. However, there are only two more test dates before August and my teacher said the absolute last time I should take it is over the summer…and even that’s pushing it. But if I need to be applying now for scholarships…I don’t want to use the 26??!!

I’m also worried because I haven’t taken the SAT and I don’t know if I need to submit both the SAT and ACT scores for college?

I’m also not even sure where to apply for scholarships now because they only help with scholarships at my school if you’re a senior.

Help!