<p>My family has no income whatsoever. If I want to go to UCLA (I'm from Texas), can I use the federal grants to pay for my education? Does it cover all the necessary costs? What about in state schools?</p>
<p>It’s very unlikely that you’d receive enough need-based grant aid to cover an OOS public school. You probably need to research your instate publics and determine how much grant aid you would get from Texas’ state aid program, as well as schools that would give you merit scholarships. With a 0 EFC (assuming your family does not have significant assets either) you would receive a federal Pell grant of $5550, a $5500 Stafford loan, and probably some SEOG, work study, and maybe a Perkins loan. Those are the main federal student aid programs…the rest would have to come from state and institutional aid, which is often not enough to cover the full cost of tuition, fees, room, board, books and other expenses. That’s why lower income students often attend CC’s first or live at home and commute. If you can add some merit aid to the mix, it can give you a much better picture.</p>
<p>No, that would not work at UCLA. The cost is about $50K/yr and the maximum Federal grant is about $5500. You can get loans and work study too, but it adds up to much less than you’ll need.</p>
<p>Honestly, with 0 income attending an out-of-state public school might not be a feasible idea. </p>
<p>[If</a> you visit the UCLA page](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/budget.htm]If”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/budget.htm), you can find a breakdown of the cost of attendance. Since you are from Texas, you have to pay non-resident tuition of $22,021. Add to that $11,639 for “fees” (?) and your room / board fee for the residence halls – your directly billable expenses, that is – and you’re almost at $50,000 a year in and of itself. Then you need to pay for books, clothes, insurance, haircuts, if you ever want to go out or anything like that, etc. </p>
<p>What I seriously recommend considering is the in-state University of Texas system.</p>
<p>Check the UT system, and also find out if Texas has grants for low income students. Your ability to pay for an instate university with federal funding and state/institutional funding is far higher than being able to fund the costs of attending UCLA.</p>