@Totoros: Thanks for the insight! It’s relieving to know there’s a slim chance to be able to get a quality financial package.
@Gumbymom: My EFC is ~ $30k, and I would like the cost to be under $160k for the four years. It’s possible for me to get one year’s worth of credit through AP tests (I have ~30 quater credits worth thus far), though that won’t be near halving the cost. Of course as you said, the bottom line is how much I’m willing to invest into the cost of attending a UC, which for me is probably at UCLA.
Anyways, thank you so much for the help, it really brought clarity to the reality of the cost and investment, so on and so forth.