Yes, the California schools will look at your income so be sure to fill out FAFSA in January, and the Cal grant before the March 2nd deadline. (FAFSA and CAL GRANT are two separate applications. Do not miss the deadlines!!!)
This is, of course, only if your are a California resident.
As for Pell, nope, it won’t make a difference in getting you in. It’s really not that much money.
I know more about the California schools:
Stanford will look at income and if you are a tippy-top student, with what they want, then they will fund you. Stanford is a reach for everyone. They are very specific about how they generate a new freshman class. Assume you won’t get in. My 3 children were legacies with excellent stats and EC’s-none got in. Son was waitlisted, but he decided not to pursue it since he got into another school.
USC is expensive but if you are a national merit “finalist”, and low income, you stand a good chance of getting close to full funding. (Notice I said FINALIST) Son was offered ½ tuition as a NM winner. That was $20K (cost to attend was ~$62K-he obviously didn’t accept that).
OOS public schools have lousy financial aid if you are not a resident.
NYU is $72K, no financial aid or very poor financial aid.
UofPenn won’t give anything either.
How did you generate your list? Didn’t you use the NPC on the websites?