California Financial Aid

<p>The big issue is once you get past the top schools, few colleges meet 100% of need. We would need to know your stats go advise you where to look. When schools don’t meet fuull need, you will have to be very attractive to them to get enough aid when you have a zero EFC.</p>

<p>Any special reason you don’t want to leave CA? There are not that many schools that meet full need there. You will have many more choices if apply widely, especially if you don’t have stellar stats. Try to keep an open mind.</p>

<p>I can post all my stats, however, I haven’t taken the SAT or ACT, yet, therefore I am going to post all my stats once I get them. If I didn’t stay in Cal, what are the top known schools that offer good financial aid, however, aren’t of the Ivy League or anything similar? </p>

<p>Does University of Pacific, Chapman, or Occidental offer extremely good financial aid?</p>

<p>While checking information on CC will give you some good points to start from, you will get a lot of individual information that may not apply to your case. You have to start doing some of your own legwork instead of just repeating yourself here. Start with US News just to get a listing of what schools are in CA. You can eliminated many right off the bat there that don’t appeal to you geographically, sizewize or by focus. You will also get a break down of the rigor students they accept. Most schools also list FA data on their websites. <a href=“http://www.ucan-network.org%5B/url%5D”>www.ucan-network.org</a> might be a good place for you to check out too.</p>

<p>I am not being lazy, I am looking for accounts of students who already have received generous student aid from colleges in California. Then I look at the colleges website and compare their freshmen profile to myself, to see if they are a fit. I can look at various colleges however how will I find out if they offer spectacular financial aid?</p>

<p>Your definition of good will depend on your FAFSA EFC; have you calculated that? Will you be Pell grant eligible? ACG/Smart grant? CA grant (if they keep them, they only pay for in state schools).</p>

<p>For example, a student at a UC with an EFC of $0 might get (in round numbers) $8k CA , $5k Pell, $650ACG, some small UC grant, maybe a merit award or tw (Alumni or Byrd or local awards). In years 3 & 4 the ACG can become Smart of $4k/year if you qualify.</p>

<p>So, $14k+ and about $23-25k COA, so $10k in loans</p>

<p>At a private that is cheaper like Baylor or Whitworth or Chapman, you may have a COA of $35k, the same $14k in aid plus $10-15k in merit, so it could be less in loans.</p>

<p>You need to determine YOUR EFC and whether you do okay under Profile or not (some schools your CA home equity will increase your EFC)</p>

<p>Somebody said since my grandma, who is my guardian, lives off of Social Security, I have an automatic EFC of 0. Either way, I am pretty sure I have a EFC of 0 since my grandma’s total income is around 20K or a little less.</p>