For a Texas school, this isn’t a bad package.
You have 12K left to pay, so ask UTD about
1° federal work study (and pick a “paid to study” job ie., work in the library)
2° Perkins loans
3° Texas grants
4° Texas loans.
Right now, you should be able to earn about 3K from work (part-time for now + full time over the summer), and you have 5.5K in federal loans if you filled out FAFSA.
So, your gap is 3.5K. Texas grants would likely cover part of this. Check very quickly whether you’ve filled everything out properly.
There’s a difference between tuition/fees and COA (Cost of Attendance)… Most promises say they will cover your tuition if you make like under $60,000. But they don’t account for room and board, which is basically just as expensive.
^ actually, that rezlly depends. ‘super aid’ schoolsnlike hyp actualkybcount thé bois, your clothes, etc.
Most of the Texas guarantees to low-income families (Cougar Promise for U of H, etc.) are about tuition and fees. They do not cover the full cost of attendance. Those colleges are expecting to you to live at home and attend. I work with this population and many of the state schools (especially directionals) do not have the financial aid resources for full-need students. You will be gapped.
UT-Dallas has chosen to focus its financial aid resources on attracting high stat students. Those kids, national merit finalists and the like, will get full tuition and maybe even room and board. For those students, UT-Dallas is an awesome choice because it is very affordable. For poor Texas kids, it is not. Those students are not the school’s institutional priority. For students who are low stat but auto admit because of class rank, there just isn’t much there when it comes to $.
Do you have a school nearby that you can apply to while living at home? If you do, some schools have application deadlines that have not yet passed. You may look at those and make a course correction.