Cal Grant [mainly B] Eligibility General Information

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

[This is specifically directed towards California Community College students who are looking to transfer to UC/CSU, please move if necessary]

Hello, my name is David and I have been royally confused about Cal Grant due to what may be a misunderstanding on my part. I did a lot of research on it and think I can say that I have most of it down. This thread is a way for me to put together the pieces and possibly help some others who are just as confused as I was. As there are numerous variables, feel free to comment if corrections are necessary as I am not 100 percent confident with everything. Here we go:

The remaining eligibility you have for Cal Grant depends on your student standing/educational level when you first receive Cal Grant. If you will first receive Cal Grant as a freshman, then you start off with 4.0 eligibility years—sophomore 3.0, junior 2.0, senior 1.0. This is assuming you first receive Cal Grant during Fall Semesters: I am not sure how it would work out if you first receive Cal Grant during Spring Semesters. Hypothetically [NOT SURE], you should have 3.5 if you first receive Cal Grant as a freshman in spring semester—sophomore 2.5, junior 1.5, senior .5.

[Copy and pasted from a CSAC, commission for Cal Grant, email] Aside from financial disqualification, there are three things that can disqualify a student.

  1. Educational level past a level 4 Senior level in college: this is determined by your Financial Aid Office at your school, they are the only ones able to verify and make any changes to it. [I do not think we really need to worry about this because you should not be able to go past a senior level without receiving a bachelor's degree, see #2]
  2. Receive a Bachelor’s Degree
  3. Out of Cal Grant eligibility : when renewing your Cal Grant you must have at least 10% of Cal Grant eligibility left. Cal Grant eligibility is determined by your Educational level when entering the program.

CCC students who are looking to transfer may want to put their award on hold because Cal Grant B for UC/CSU awards much larger amounts compared to the amounts awarded at a CCC. [I think that people who are only qualified for Cal Grant A get it automatically placed on reserve until they reach university and therefore do not get Cal Grant money for community college.] Yes, Cal Grant B is better than Cal Grant A for college and university—how the tides have turned! Take these hypothetical situations as examples:

Student A knows that she will be attending CC for two years and UC/CSU for two years. Since this student is going for four years in total and she first received Cal Grant B in her fall semester of freshman year, she does not have any reason to put the Cal Grant B on hold granted that she is successful in her courses and life does not get in the way.

Student B knows that he will be attending CC for three years and UC/CSU for two years. This student should do a 2-2 split; 2 years of Cal Grant B at CC and 2 years at UC/CSU. This way, the student will maximize the amount of money he will be receiving. If he had used Cal Grant B for his 3rd year at CC, then he will transfer with only 1 year of eligibility remaining. Keep in mind that Cal Grant B is much higher at the university level.

Of course, these are only two situations, and there can be a plethora of variables. I recommend planning all your CC courses out and then contacting the respective schools that you are looking to transfer to for information regarding the amount of units necessary for the degree. Some may need 2 years at CC and 3 years at university. These students should do a 1-3 split; 1 year of Cal Grant B and CC and 3 years of Cal Grant B at university.

You want to MAXIMIZE the amount of money you receive. Plan ahead to make sure that you use all your eligibility in the most efficient manner possible. You do not want to graduate with remaining eligibility because you would be missing out on a good amount of $$$.

Anyhow, this was the thread that got me extremely confused on the subject: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1149234-cal-grant-b-community-college-p1.html

Kender: “You still would have had only two years of eligibility even if you put it on hold when you had frosh standing when you entered CCC.”

Based on my calls to CSAC and visits to my Financial Aid Office, the above statement should be false. If a student is eligible to start receiving Cal Grant during the start of Freshman Year but decides to put it on hold for 2 years and then transfers, that student should still have 4.0 years of eligibility remaining at university. [This student will run the risk of not using up all eligibility before receiving degree.] That statement has honestly been bugging the heck out of me, especially considering that Kender was “100% positive” on the situation. The post is from 2011, so there may have been changes or maybe I am misunderstanding something. If someone can please enlighten me on the situation, it would be greatly appreciated.

I hope I helped some of you—CSAC should really have this kind of information on their website

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Some things that I forgot:

To put Cal Grant B on hold, you must go to their website and submit a leave of absence. You could probably call in as well. You may need to fill out a decline of aid form, talk to your Financial Aid Office. Submitting a leave of absence on CSAC’s website should be your priority.

Money that is on hold DOES NOT accumulate. You do not bank the amount that is on hold. Say you are eligible to receive Cal Grant as a Freshman in the Fall Semester, but you decide to put it on hold for 2 years and transfer—if you begin to accept the grant at the beginning of your junior year (Fall semester) at university, you will receive the amount for that year ONLY. You do not receive the 2 years worth of Cal Grant money that you previously put on hold [you do save eligibility for putting it on hold]. From my call to CSAC today [shoutouts to Christine/Kristine], it seems that this is a common misconception:

Student C knows that more Cal Grant B money is awarded to university students, but he is currently a CC student. Student C thinks that if he puts Cal Grant B on hold from the start of the Fall Semester of his Freshman Year to until he transfers as a junior to university, he will have 2 years worth of university-level Cal Grant B from freshman and sophomore years in the bank if he starts accepting Cal Grant B as a junior at university.

Student C is WRONG. University students do receive more Cal Grant B money than CC students, but you can not bank the money from community college Cal Grant B and have it scale to university-level Cal Grant B later. It is all about playing with the eligibility and understanding how many years you will personally need to take. Take a further look at the students A and B in my above post if you are still uncertain on how it works.

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Even more stuff, possibly going to continue posting whatever helpful information I get since we can not edit posts:

I have seen a previous thread concerning the intention of “Leave of Absence” for Cal Grant. Submitting a LoA for Cal Grant is only to put the award on hold for the particular semester(s) that you submitted it for—I have confirmed this via multiple calls to my Financial Aid Office and CSAC (though, one particular CSAC representative seems to be confused…). It has nothing to do with actual enrollment. You CAN attend school full-time and submit a LoA for Cal Grant to save eligibility.

From my inquiry, it seems that if you are eligible to receive Cal Grant B for your first semester at CC, you must accept it during your first semester and then you can put it on hold. Do double check on this because I have gotten an answer saying that you could put it on hold since the start. This should not be much of a concern for most students. Sorry to disappoint, but I rather not go through the headache of confirming something that I and the majority of people do not need confirmation on—I have already accepted Cal Grant B for the Fall Semester of my Freshman Year.

But the following is an example of when it should be a concern:

Student D maps out her plan and finds out that she wants to do 1 year at CC and 4 years at university. Since Cal Grant B’s max eligibility is 4 years, the student would ideally not use any eligibility during her 1 year at CC to save all 4 years of Cal Grant B for university [again, since university-level Cal Grant B is higher than CC-level]. This student should be concerned on whether she can put Cal Grant B on hold at the start of her freshman year without accepting Cal Grant B for one semester first.

(As CC or university student) If you are attending school over the summer and want Cal Grant, talk to your Financial Aid Office and have them request it. I BELIEVE you will be receiving the same amount of money and therefore lose the same amount of eligibility as a regular term. I guess it is a way to receive funds earlier. OTHERWISE: IF YOU DO NOT REQUEST FOR CAL GRANT DURING THE SUMMER, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT LOSING ELIGIBILITY OVER THE SUMMER.

You do not need to reapply for Cal Grant, just make sure you fill out the FAFSA every year.