<p>Hi, I received my award letter for ucsb and I'm not quite sure what all of this means. </p>
<p>My EFC is 0. </p>
<p>I was awarded: </p>
<p>Federal Pell Grant - 5500
UCSB New Freshman Scholarship - 1500
UC Grant - 3932
Schol - Annabell Karr - 1000</p>
<p>Possible Cal Grant Eligibility: 10302 </p>
<p>Federal Work Study - 2000 </p>
<p>Federal Perkins Loan - 1500
Recommended Subsidized Direct Stafford Loan - 3500
Recommended Unsubsidized Direct Stafford Loan - 1000 </p>
<p>After checking my Cal Grant I was awarded Cal Grant B, not A.
Cal grant B is only $1551 compared to $10302. </p>
<p>What does all of this mean? How much in debt will I be?
Also I think I'm supposed to get a Cahsee grant because I'm a foster child. But I didn't know I had to apply separately for it. So I should get that for future years. </p>
<p>Please help me out, and let me know how much debt I'll actually be in. </p>
<p>That aid package looks pretty good. Basically, the only parts of the financial aid that you will have to pay back are the Perkins Loans, the Subsidized Direct Stafford Loans, and the Unsubsidized Direct Stafford Loans. The Perkins and Subsidized Direct Loans are the best loans out of those three, since you don’t have to pay interest on them until a period of time AFTER you graduate or otherwise stop being a college student. The unsubsidized Direct Loan charges you interest but you don’t have to start paying it back until after you graduate; however, if you don’t the interest gets added back to the loan and makes it more expensive.</p>
<p>If you take ALL of the loans that they recommend for you (and you don’t have to, if you can afford not to) you will have $6000 in debt for this year. </p>
<p>The Cal Grant, the Pell Grant, the UC Grant, and the Annabel Scholarships are all *free money; you will never be asked to pay them back. </p>
<p>As for Federal Work Study, that is money that is paid to you in the form of a wage or salary if you find a job on campus. However, the only issue that you might face is that you might not be able to find a job that gives you enough hours for your entire award, so don’t count on getting all that money unless you work for it.</p>
<p>Do you know the full cost of attendance for the school?</p>
<p>The estimated cost is $30,284. That includes books, tuition, housing, personal expenses.
I have no money, nor do I have any family support. So I have to count on financial aid to pay for school.</p>
<p>Need some help here…
My daughter was qualified for the Gold and Blue which includes the UC Grant. However, since she sent in the verication late she’s now considered late applicant. the financial Aid page i now read:
(EFC: $2734)
ACAD COMP GRANT (GL-1) Confirmed 750.00
CAL GRANT B STIPEND NEW Unconfirmed 1,551.00
DIRECT LOAN - SUBSIDIZED Accepted 3,500.00<br>
DIRECT LOAN-UNSUBSIDIZED Accepted 2,000.00<br>
DIRECT LOAN-PARENT PLUS View PLUS Info 12,163. (not being offered to accept.)
FEDERAL PELL GRANT Confirmed 2,800.00
REVELLE SCHOLARSHIP Accepted 2,500.00
Totals: 25,264.00<br>
** she didnt get to select/accept the ParentPlus Loan yet, i think i need to apply that…
at this point we are still expecting the award on UCSD Grant (instead of Loans.)</p>
<p>She was qualified for GalGrant A which worth about $11,000+ but only awarded the B. So she called the FinAid office and they ask her to request a change to Cal Grant A, so she did. Does that mena they will not consider her the UC Grant since she requested to switch to Cal GRant A?</p>
<p>I think the OP’s question is what does this do to his award? In other words, does he now have to come up with a bit less than $9K in order to go to school this year even though his EFC is $0.</p>
<p>OP—you need to call the FA office on Monday and find out whether the college will up their grant aid to replace the missing Cal Grant money or not. See what they suggest as possible ways of making up this gap.</p>
<p>I agree with Gardna that the * original * award letter was a good FA offer, but since the “possible Cal Grant” amount is $9K more than what materialized, the offer now appears to have a pretty big gap for a student with an EFC of $0.</p>