No one bring home the full pre-tax income. Even for my D who just worked for a few weeks with minimal wage still needs to have a few dollars withheld. Why are you complaining? You do make at least the AGI in pretax income. Everything else will be factored in in the calculation anyway. The amount you take home depends on the exemptions you claimed on W4.
@Billscho I wasn’t complaining. I didn’t understand something so I asked and it was answered. I haven’t seen any complaining from myself at all so I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.
I guess it really doesn’t matter how they derived it. Assume that if they derived if off net income all the qualifying amount for blue and gold would be set much lower and your EFC would still be the same. So that still leaves you in the same boat for college. Considering costs is part of college planning and applications.
As mentioned, people often pay for college out of savings. Those that didn’t save enough will have to pay more out of current income and take some loans in order to go to more expensive colleges. Otherwise you keep running the numbers and pick a cheaper college. Fortunately in CA there is CSU and the CC route to UC and CSU. Many have to start at CC because of costs.There are also colleges with merit awards for students with stats for them, you can look in the threads pinned to the top of the financial aid forum. I hope you are a Jr, then you can apply to some.
The UCs are more generous with aid than the Cal States. I have a son at Cal Poly and one at UC Davis. UC Davis has consistently cost less for us than Cal Poly.
@3younguns that’s somewhat of a relief, thanks for posting. 
That’s because UC will give university grants and CSU doesn’t. You ran the NPC, so you already have an idea of what you will get.