UPDATE:
When i ran the net price calculator in November, it told me my net price would be 24,000. The numbers I put in were extremely accurate and gave me an EFC of 4,000 too. Not sure why there was such a large discrepancy. It might be because the new financial aid for out of state students this year. I did get the out of state grant for 18,000 but that was it. I do qualify for work study but that’s only 2,000.
I did look more into getting in state tuition and your parents don’t have to move to California to qualify. I’ll put the link below this for the In-state tuition form. However, you would have to be doing the list of things they suggest for at least one year which means that it wouldn’t really be possible to get until your junior year the earliest. Plus, you would have to live in California over the summer and demonstrate a high degree of financial independence.
http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/forms/residenceclass.pdf
I called the financial aid office yesterday, and basically she told me I was lucky for even getting the grant I did and that she couldn’t do anything more for me. There is an appeal for a re-evaluation of your financial aid package you can file, however, this only changes your package if there was something inaccurate in your FAFSA or if something is unrepresented by it (for example, financial burdens like being laid off occurring in 2016). Plus, at this point, I doubt my EFC moving to lower than 4,000 is going to make a difference in aid provided. If they’re fine leaving me high and dry for 35,000, i don’t think 39,000 which give them a change of heart.
The financial aid office did however tell me that some buildings are still offering aid like the alumni office and certain major offices. So next week I am going to contact those offices and see what they say. I’m also going to look more into loan options.
Overall tho, it’s seeming like UCLA is virtually impossible for out of state students that are financially needy.