Did you show your parents your spreadsheet? What do they think, and do you trust their financial judgement? It seems a bit strange that on one hand you had no idea what their income was until recently, but on the other hand, you know all their expenses on things like house payments, sending money to relatives, etc. I’m not trying to be accusatory, but it’s really easy to assume you can’t afford to be full-pay. Unfortunately on CC if that’s how you present yourself, people will run with that assumption. Families spend more than 20% of their income on college all the time without problems. Of course, many families can’t and yours might be one of them, but I don’t get the sense that you can make that call just yet, especially without discussing it with your parents.