OP, in my experience, the net cost calculator on the UC sites tended to be fairly accurate. There are ways to pay for college without extensive loans or a Regents scholarship, but they do require some time to find and apply to. They may be more worth your time to look out, though, because while Regents can be a good chunk of aid, at schools like Berkeley/UCLA, they are going to be very competitive, and people with 4.0s get turned away all the time. If you get multiple smaller scholarships, they add up. But FYI, there can be a small window between acceptance notifications and deadlines for UC scholarships. I believe I had around two weeks to apply for a scholarship at UCLA that required letters of rec and an essay. So scout those ahead of time, if you can.