Cal Grant A or Cal Vet ??????

Paying for College
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Hey guys. I have been awarded a Cal Grant A transfer entitlement (E2) which is approximately 12k which supposely will help pay and cover my tuition. I was also planning on using my parent’s Cal Vet to help cover my tuition. I recently talked to a financial aid person at the UC campus I will be attending and said that I will only be allowed to use/receive one or the other? Is this true? Why wouldn’t I be able to receive the grant I was given and still use my parents Cal Vet? She also said they both fully cover my tuition. I was thinking about using the Cal Vet to cover my tuition and then receive my Cal Grant and use it on other school related stuff, etc. But I guess I can’t have both? I was thinking that the Cal Grant would just be distributed to me in a form of a check and be used on how I choose like how I’ve been given my pell grants before. I am really confused so please someone help.

Another question is if I do have to choose one. Which one would be the best option because the financial advisor I talked to said they both fully cover my tuition. But Im not so sure on my Cal Grant as it has already listed a set amount of money they will give me so what if I take more units than they estimated, that means my Cal grant would be short of my tuition fess, correct? So if I had to choose I’d lean towards using the Cal Vet just because it seems like the safer way to go knowing it will cover all tuition and fees. Any thoughts?

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Edit: I am also receiving a pell grant according to my financial award estimate.

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You just have some misconceptions but the school told you how it works. Cal Grant A covers tuition only. You have just made up stuff about it being a check etc. I don’t know about Cal vet but it sounds like tuition waiver. Once your tuition is covered grants for tuition aren’t further awarded, they are designed to pay for tuition only when you don’t have other means. Having means for one cancels the other. The amount of Cal Grant is designed to cover tuition and fees of a full time student so there isn’t any way it doesn’t cover that. You don’t have a larger charge when you are taking more units but there is an overall cap of units UC allows regardless of cost. Summer sessions are not covered by cal grant but sometimes you can get an award by the university, I don’t know any more than that.

Pell Grant will be awarded to be used toward other expenses like room, board, books, personal. So you can get the cal grant and the Pell grant (or the CA vet grant and the Pell grant.) Plus the university may have awarded you university grants and you likely have some student loan and student contribution expected.

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Which Calvet program did you intend to use? https://www.calvet.ca.gov/veteran-services-benefits/education

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@Erin’s Dad my dad was a discharged veteran of the U.S navy so I am using his CalVet to waive tuition and fees