Am I Going Crazy, or Are UC's Now Giving Some Aid to OOS'ers?

State Forums
1

So this past summer, I was looking at UCs to study computer engineering. However, I’m from OOS (NY), and after both reading about UC financial aid and running the NPCs on various campuses, I realized that the $50k+ was pretty set in stone across the board. My family is smack-dab-middle class, so that wasn’t feasible, and I threw them off my list.

However, UC Irvine has been emailing me a bunch recently, and I figured I’d run their NPC again just for fun, expecting the same $55k. What I got, however, was a net price of ~$36k, with about ~$16k in grants. I checked to make sure that all the info I entered was correct (especially the residency status), and it was. Confused, I ran over to another campus’s site - Cal. Same thing - $30-$40k. UCSD - $42k.

While these prices have a decent chance of still being too expensive for my family, I’m wondering if anyone else is all of a sudden getting estimates of actually being able to receive FA from OOS for UCs. Or if anyone knows what caused the sudden change.

2

Grants don’t necessarily mean you RECEIVE the aid. Priority goes to everyone of lower income first. If youre dead in the middle like me, expect to get very little financial aid from UC. Plus, being OOS, UC’s may favor in state students to receive aid first and that you are middle class only makes it worst.

3

If you really wanted to study computer engineering at a UC then your best bet would be attending a CC and transferring which many people do.

4

@Allude I recognize that, but I’m wondering why it now says that I could get grants, whereas ~2 months ago the NPCs gave me a big fat 0 for grant aid. I mean, I guess it doesn’t really matter too much, since even $36k is probably too much, I’m just kind of curious.

5

It is an estimate if they have the cash. They don’t really know how many incoming state residents will be applying for aid. One thing that will happen is that you will be on the hook for four years. They would rather hook an $OOS for 40K a year to get some money, rather than no money at all.

6

Yes, the UCs may offer some grants to out-of-state students. However, there will be no coverage of the out-of-state additional tuition of $25,000 per year or so, other than if you get a few rare merit scholarships.