<p>I'm planning to attend UCI and it's COA is around 28k. I'm receiving a Cal Grant that's worth around 11k and another grant from UCI that's around 2k. </p>
<p>28k - 13k = 15k </p>
<p>So my net cost is around 15k. I heard about the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan and it's cut-off point for 2011-2012 is 80k. My family makes 56k with just me and my mom. I haven't received any sort of financial aid from the plan and I am qualified. I understand it will only cover my direct costs/fees (13k) and not my living expenses (14k). </p>
<p>Does it cover ALL my direct fees? If it does, that means I could use the Cal Grant to cover my living expenses and use the Blue and Gold for my direct fees, leaving my family to only pay 3k. Although, that seems kind of outrageous, to only pay 3k. Can anybody help me out with this situation?</p>
<p>All Blue&Gold is is a promise that all of your systemwide fees will be met with grants and/or scholarships. If there is a shortfall, it will be made up with a UC Fee Grant. Blue&Gold will consider all grants and scholarships as eligible aid to meet its promise.</p>
<p>Cal Grant covers your systemwide fees. Blue&Gold considers that its promise to you has been met because of this. Note that systemwide fees are projected to be just over 11k for this coming year (not $13k… yet). The additional fee cost over that (roughly $2k-3k depending on the campus) comes from campus fees. Blue&Gold does not promise to meet this. Cal Grant does not either. However, the UCs are fairly generous from the packages I’ve seen despite all the funding cuts and will often give enough of their individual grant money to cover their own campus fees.</p>
<p>There isn’t an award that is called, “Blue and Gold”…if you qualify for Blue and Gold, and your various grants add up to about $12k (or whatever the UC fees are), then the B&G promise has been met.</p>
<p>So basically the money I received from the Cal Grant and UCI Grant ARE The Blue + Gold opportunity plan. I knew something was wrong with my calculations…</p>
<p>No, just Cal Grant would be meeting Blue&Gold. Unless, of course, there was a shortfall between Cal Grant and systemwide fees (happens with mid-year increases in systemwide fees). Then a portion of the UCI Grant could be seen as helping to make up the shortfall, yes.</p>
<p>Cal Grant only meets systemwide fees.
Blue&Gold is a promise systemwide fees will be met with grant/scholarship money.</p>
<p>Blue&Gold is an odd beast that seems more beneficial than it really is. It only benefits those with Cal Grant B as freshman (makes up the “missing year” for tuition/fee assistance) or those who did not qualify for either Cal Grant. It can also be a benefit (as I experienced) if systemwide fees increase mid-year when Cal Grant cannot be increased to meet the new systemwide fee amount. It will cover that shortfall created by the increase.</p>
<p>Your UCI Grant is not specifically earmarked for qualified expenses unless you have an additional stipulation in your aid package that I did not have with my UCSC Grant. You can consider it as covering the campus fees if you like, however. Campus fees and systemwide fees are not the same thing, but the UCs do bundle them together.</p>
<p>This distinction matters for tax purposes as well as understanding that the only promise you are given is for systemwide fees. There is no promise to meet campus fees. Since Cal Grant is already earmarked for systemwide fees, you cannot attempt the trick to move the amount of Cal Grant to say room and board and then claim loans are any out of pocket payments as going towards the bulk of the qualified expenses. I’ve read about people using this to get education tax credits, but it simply does not work when the bulk of the qualified expenses are already covered by grants specifically earmarked for them.</p>