@“Ya Ya”
My point is that it’s actually common for UT to expect families to pay full freight. This usually happens with families that do not qualify for the Pell Grant.
This scenario is strange in that the student qualified for Pell but still needs to borrow a very large sum of money for his education. Last year, 0 EFC students were being offered over $16k by a combination of federal and state grants and a low-tier Presidential Achievement Scholarship.
I do agree that it would be irresponsible to attend UT given these finances. OP should attend a school where his loans will be kept at minimum.