I apologize I realized you were referring to the $1,222.22 educational grant from AmeriCorps. @SOSConcern @whitespace
@Lovenetc, Go to the [ASU Net Price Calculator](ClearCost), tonight if you can, and fill it out with your parents. Let us know what it says.
An EFC of $29,469 seems like a lot for a family with an income of $100k unless you have a lot of assets. Go over the FAFSA and make sure all the items are filled in correctly.
The only thing the FAFSA EFC is used for is to determine if a student qualifies for a federal Pell grant. Colleges aren’t “supposed” to cover the difference between the FAFSA EFC and cost of attendance and most won’t.
Good luck, I guess. Please find a way to make it affordable or choose a different school. Loans will follow you wherever your life takes you.
Yes…your EFC is $29,469. How much does ASU cost for instate students?? Your EFC and the award you received could equal the cost of attendance. The school is NOt going to give you money for your EFC.
@austinmshauri Many colleges will use that in their calculation for how much the family is supposed to pay. For colleges that attempt to meet need and use FAFSA, they will usually try to bring it down to close to the EFC (close being relative of course). Full met need colleges will usually use the CSS Profile, however, so that can be confusing. Fin aid policies vary a ton by school, so some colleges will make no attempt to meet demonstrated need regardless of EFC.
96: Your Americorps grant.
You’ll be contributing a lot yourself ($6,000), but according to your EFC, your parents are supposed to come up with about 30K each year. (You may want to check carefully as it seems a bit high, so you may have entered something with an extra zero somewhere.)
Barrett is actually cheaper than EFC + student contribution (because yes, unfortunately, EFC is NOT diminished by student contribution!): Your parents are supposed to pay 30K. It’s 28K. Minus your 6K, it means your parents would have to pay 22K rather than 30K.
Based on their current income if it iss around 100K, it should be possible but will require “stretching” (it should be about 20% of their income, and some of it will be switched from expenses they already make, ie., food for you, transportation, etc., plus they may get ~4,500 paid back in education tax credit toward your college costs.) Can you ask them whether they’d budgeted the 30K/year (few parents have, this sounds crazy to most of them). What about 22K? Can they pay that? If not,
( In addition, you may well qualify for the New American Scholarship or other scholarships from ASU, decreasing the costs, so that even if your parents can “only” pay 20K, for instance, you may be able to swing it if you live frugally.)
You must know how much your parents can invest in your education - the actual number they can promise you.
Info from ASU:
ASU financial aid representatives are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For questions related to financial aid and scholarships, contact the ASU Student Financial Assistance Office at 855-278-5080. You may also utilize the Live Chat link found on the financial aid homepage to speak with a financial aid counselor.
https://students.asu.edu/financialaid
Can you consider applying to a couple colleges that still have openings and scholarships for sals? Since you completed an application for Stanford, you must have a commonapp all ready, right?
@thumper1 No relief there, haha? It’s okay, I believe it. @austinmshauri I am filling out the ASU Net Price Calculator right now. Give me a few and I’ll let you know 
You may think you want to do this ‘all on your own’ but perhaps your parents are willing/able to help you in this process - help some financially for UG.
Otherwise, I would recommend you take as many hours that you can at local CC (saving on room/board, and having lower rates of tuition) - and find out all the specifics in NROTC or whatever ROTC you can be eligible for with your areas of interest and aptitude at ASU.
You can take only a limited amount of school loan money, $5500 for freshman. What you could do is obtain this, saving as much as you can from CC freshman year, ditto for sophomore year and obtaining school loan money for sophomore year, and then you could transfer to ASU and have $$ that was set aside from these loans.
Perhaps you can get into ROTC program which would be paid versus unpaid. You need to get as much information as you can, and not be mislead in any way. Perhaps you can do ROTC as a sophomore and then get into the summer field training and paid ROTC.
She says that her parents make OVER $100k…so not $100k…and likely they have retirement contributions that are being added back in.
Okay, so I just did the ASU Net Price Calculator. @austinmshauri I used my EFC for the 2016-2017 year. However, my parents haven’t done their taxes yet for 2015, so I cannot guarantee this is 100% what is expected. It says my total cost is $27,260, They assume that my parents just has that actual EFC to splurge on me so of course my total would be zero if I had that money.
So, this is what it says:
Your estimated grants and scholarships:
College Grants and Scholarships
ASU Scholarship - $2,000
Your Estimated Net Price
$25,260
I haven’t included my AmeriCorps Grant yet.
Then it says this:
Your estimated eligibility for other aid programs:
Loans
Direct Unsubsidized Loan - $5,500
Your Estimated Out-of-Pocket Cost
$19,760
Your estimated eligibility for other aid programs:
Loans
PLUS Loan (Parent Loan) - $19,760
In other words, ASU would want you to pay 20K (let’s round it up).
You may have a small Barrett scholarship on top of this, but Barrett costs an extra $1,500 (although they’re worth it, compared to everything else!)
But let’s assume you get $1,000 for Barrett and you live a bit frugally, renting your books or buying used, for instance, and you manage to have $19,300 as your total COA.
You can then subtract your $300 and your parents essentially have to pay 19K. Or 18K if you deduct your full $1,200, hoping you’ll earn some kind of extra scholarship or will work sufficiently while on campus to get $1,200. (Call ASU/email/chat, and ask to have work study into your package. Indeed, it means you’ll have some priority for jobs on campus - some positions won’t be open to you if you don’t have work study, and work study is better for freshmen. Don’t plan on working more than 8-10 hours a week, especially if you haven’t worked before.)
No matter how you slice it, your parents have to find 18K.
“Parents PLUS” loans are NOT a good idea.
Ah, lucky us, right! 
Thank you for the break down! @MYOS1634
Good job, @Lovenetc. Thanks for running it.
What that’s telling you is that ASU will cost your family over $100k out-of-pocket. So you’d have to borrow the entire $27k federal student loan (~$5500/year) and your parents would have to pay $20k/year. Do they have $20k/year without having to borrow it? If not, this school is unaffordable.
My son was in a similar position after his college acceptances came in. He had a dozen offers, but they all required him to take the federal student loan. He decided he didn’t want to graduate with a lot of debt so he took a gap year and applied to only 2 colleges – our local state school and a community college – and felt comfortable attending whichever one worked out. (He didn’t take any classes during his gap year because that makes students ineligible for freshmen grants at most colleges). He was accepted to our local state school and is happy as a clam. The opportunity to attend college, his (eventual) degree, and the ability to start his adult life with minimal debt are what he considers his “reward” for working hard in high school.
If you’re not sure what to do, take a gap year. Schools aren’t going anywhere.
Right. And that would be “most colleges” instead of “some colleges.” There is no obligation or requirement for schools to meet demonstrated need regardless of EFC. Which is why it is incredibly misleading for you to say this:
I’m talking in theory. That’s what the EFC is supposed to represent - the amount your family contributes to college. Most schools will take that number at face value and then figure out what they’re actually giving you, if anything.
Edit: anyway, not the point. Doesn’t matter to OP regardless because the COA at Barrett is apparently less than her EFC already.
@Lovenetc, Have you asked your parents how much they can afford to pay per year (without borrowing)? If not, ask them for a hard number.
I went onto the website. Tuition and fees (including Barrett) is 12,800. Without Barrett it’s 11,300. Cheapest housing in Barrett (shared double) is 7620. So your lowest cost with honors program is about 20,500, 19K without Honors. Add 5.2K for lowest meal plan and you’re up to 25,570 or 24,070 without Barrett
Subtract 5,500 grant, 1,200 Americorps, get a work study/part time job for maybe 3K per year. That leaves roughly 15K for your parents to contribute for Barrett, and 13.5K without. This does not seem insurmountable. Present this information to them and see what they say. Maybe they can swing it.
Oops, forgot that you got 2K per year in scholarship, so bring that down to 13K/11.5K.
This assumes you are in-state, which I think I remember that you are.
I am sorry that you were ill advised through this process. With some on-line test prep, you might have gotten into a different category with respect to merit aid eligibility.
When you bring them this result, if they haven’t run a NPC before and don’t know their EFC, expect them to be in shock, so be very considerate.
Then you all have to discuss how you’re going to handle this expense, which is also an investment.
Remember, you have ONE day to apply to colleges that have scholarships for sals, or are test optional, if you want a back up “just in case”.
@lovenetc @mamadefamilia don’t forget to subtract the $2000 per year merit award. Love is there a certain GPA you must maintained to receive it over all 4 years? Given the figures presented that would bring you closer to 13K for Barrett an 11.5 without. My apologies if you already subtracted it, I just didn’t see it in calculation.
@imwiththeband Thanks for the correction - I remembered after the fact and had enough time to edit.
To the OP, I hope that your parents can swing it. Maybe they have some savings to get through the first year and can then carefully budget for the remaining three?