Depending on your student's Expected Family Contribution, that number could go down. Basically how it works is the student completes a FASFA application, which results in an EFC (Expected Family Contribution) number. This is the number the student and/or his family is expected to be able to contribute to the student's education expenses for the year.

The Cost of Attendance published by the school is that starting point. From that number, the EFC is subtracted. What is left over is the maximum possible federal need based aid you can receive. If Cost of attendance is $20,000 and your EFC is $6,000, then you have $14,000 left over. You can get $6,195 in pell grant help, and borrow $7,805 on a federal student loan.