Cal Grant Ceiling - $1000 over

Paying for College
1

First of all, I checked my Cal Grant eligibility a few weeks ago and apparently I qualify for the Cal Grant A award of $5500.

My mom just filed her taxes and I have to make corrections to fafsa. Apparently we made about $8000 dollars more than predicted. This puts us exactly $1360 over the Cal Grant Ceiling (link below) for a family of four.

http://www.csac.ca.gov/facts/2015-16_income_and_asset_ceilings_for_new_applicants.pdf

When I make this correction what will happen? Will I be disqualified for the Cal Grant A award or will it still be awarded?

Thanks,

Westcoastie

2

Sadly, you may have lost eligibility. This is one reason I don’t like how Cal Grants are handled. They don’t diminish as income increases, they just go from all to nothing.

3

Thank you very much for you response. I will just have to make the correction and see what happens. I agree that policy is very unfair.

4

I assume you are enrolling in a CSU? Did you get into a UC? Because the Blue and gold covers UC tuition and has a higher income limit.

5

@jbourne Blue and Gold has a 80k limit and this kid’'s family earns about 90k

6

@mom2collegekids - I don’t think ‘$1360’ over the Cal Grant Limit = about $90K! The Cal Grant income limits are less than 55,500 (and that is a family of 6).

7

I thought that calgrant limit was AGI of $80,000. Did that change sometime recently?

8

Ahh, sorry, you may be right! I was looking at the Cal Grant B column: Here is the current data:

Cal Grant Cal Grant
A and C B
Dependent students and
Independent students with dependents other than a spouse
Family size:
Six or more
$100,800 $55,400
Five

$ 93,400 $51,300
Four
$87,200 $45,800
Three
$80,200 $41,200
Two
$78,300 $36,600

9

Yes I am referring to to the Cal Grant A. Our AGI this year was $88560 and the ceiling is $87200. I was already awarded the grant because I filed my fafsa under ‘will file’ and assumed our income to be less than it actually is. Do you think making this correction will cause me to lose eligibility even though the Cal Grant A was already awarded?

10

Yes, you will lose eligibility for the award after you have made a FAFSA correction.