I am a senior and so far au is my #1 school. im applying test optional, but my gpa is 3.5 uw and im in top 15% of my class. i have a bunch of extracurriculars and i have a good essay. i have also visited the school, had an interview, and went to their fair in my city. The most my dad can afford for college is $45k and my dad makes $150k and my mom doesnt have a job. do i have any chance at getting down to 45k a year?
Run the NPC. It really depends on your parent’s assets in addition to their income. The school will require a the FASFA and CSS profile. I would say that you are probably not a candidate for merit aid as that tend to go to students who are above the 75% of accepted students in stats. AU does not give a lot of merit aid. The do give need-based aid, but I think that most would not say it was “generous” aid.
i ran the NPC… but its pretty basic compared to other schools NPC. it said i would get about a 13,000 grant in which I could afford AU but im not sure if thats accurate. I dont think my parents have any assets
we attended a recent information session. Basically they use the same calculation as every one else: Fees (around $64k) minus EFC from FAFSA is used to calculate aid. They do not commit to meeting 100% of need. They also discussed potential merit-based aid. They were very clear that if you apply ED and do not get sufficient aid to afford to attend you can withdraw your ED acceptance, but they will allow you to appeal and they say will make every effort to work something out so you can attend.
Right now AU is my son’s #1 choice, but with a EFC of around $51,000 we’re going to need some merit based aid to afford it. 
My daughter was accepted to AU this past spring. Zero merit aid but a grant that would need to be re-applied for each year. The grant reapplication scenario was just too risky so she decided to attend elsewhere.
It’s easy to get down to $45k a year if you get any of the merit-based scholarships, but if your dad makes $150k a year, the aid will be negligible. My parent’s combined income is less than yours, and my need-based aid was less than $10k. My price is only below $45k because I got a presidential scholarship.
Son got about 20k/year merit, but he was a top student and turned it down to go to an Ivy.
The aid American gave us (combination of need and merit) was $15-20k LESS than other schools - and this is after we appealed and received an extra $5 merit scholarship! Apparently they took the value of our home into account (as per my husband) - we live in an extremely high-cost area and home prices are insane. We finished off the upstairs attic and added a bath so it’s more spacious now, but even when it was a 3bd-1bath home, we could have bought a horse farm in Florida for what it was worth.