By all means, talk to the FA office, but my guess is the gap between the FA offer and total COA reflects not only EFC, but also “expected student contribution.” EFC is the figure they expect your family to contribute, based not only on income but also assets—so if your parents own their own home or farmland, for example, that would figure into the calculation. Expected student contribution is a separate figure, based on your own expected earnings from summer employment, plus a fraction (usually 20%) of any assets you own, like money in a savings account. Most schools expect students to be able to clear $2-3K through summer employment. So EFC + ESC of around $5K would probably be fairly typical for a student from a lower-income household. If you think even that much isn’t doable, make your best case to the FA office and see if they can tweak your award.