There is no point to call the school about your net cost because they can only refer you to the NPC. They can’t give you any aid estimate until you file the financial papers (FAFSA and CSS Profile). The aid of heavily weighted on parent income for the previous year, plus 5.6 percent of parental assets. Student income and assets are also assessed heavily.
The calculators are usually reasonable unless divorced parents, self employe or small business and additional property owned. You may also be awarded merit aid that won’t always be reflected in the NPC, at those schools that give it. 20 pct of current income is in line with a lot of colleges. There are college that are more generous and they are the ones that are harder to get into and have the big endowments.
As for paying yourself, have you been saving money all through HS or have a trust fund? Your parents are not willing to contribute one cent even though they will have some expenses lessened and they can claim a tax credit? That’s pretty harsh, do they not care if you go to college? As a student you can borrow:
Dependent
freshman 5,500
sophomore 6,500
jr 7,500
sr 7,500