<p>from grants?</p>
<p>Just wondering, if anyone got Blue & Gold, Housing off campus fully paid for and still extra money left over for books and things.</p>
<p>wondering if its possible, most people i see just get blue&gold and partial housing. is that the norm? </p>
<p>specifically towards low income.</p>
<p>My best award package last year had housing (on campus) fully paid for - I would have had money left over if I had attended that UC, because I was also offered a 5k stipend for a research position (just for the summer, but the director of the lab/bio department said that if I performed well, he would continue employing me for 5k per term). I also qualified for FWS. It would have involved living in Riverside, though - so I turned them down.</p>
<p>I have Blue and Gold, loans and grants with plenty to live off of after I pay tuition and fees.</p>
<p>^seriously?</p>
<p>@asphyxiac, yeah that is complicated, UCR, heh. i remember prior to me signing up here, i was going to TAG their as my #1 choice.</p>
<p>but hmm sounds pretty nice. the reason why i am askin is because i want to get invisalign and i have the money now, but im wondering if i should save it for when i move to wherever i get accepted to.</p>
<p>No, not really. I get $14,478 in ‘gift aid’ living ‘with family’. Knowing how they got that figure, it would likely be $17,570 if I lived at an off campus apartment. Considering that the base expenses (in my case) are $14,059, that leaves $419 a year for books, food, and transportation if I live at home, or $3511 for books, food, and housing if I live at an off campus apartment.</p>
<p>I’m happy enough that I don’t have to pay for tuition, but it is going to be a bit of a rough ride (I just signed up for the loan… just in case i end up living at an apartment >>)</p>
<p>Cal aid + Pell grant is 19,200/year which is almost the exact cost of fees+housing+assumed 1200 for books. I also have the Miller Scholars award which is a $7000 stipend but that’s paid out in small increments over 2 years. All in all my personal bills add up to about 900/month and that’s not even including food or whatever else so I had to take out loans and will have to do work study as well.</p>
<p>Seriously what?</p>
<p>I got $27,608, mostly in grant money with the rest made up of loans and work study. I am living at home for a quarter or so until I find roommates or a living situation closer to school. As of now, my aid will leave me with enough to pay my bills and gas (which will run me on average $450 a month) and some to have a semi decent social life.</p>
<p>that is effing dope. how did you get all that?</p>
<p>@natjan - What kinds of grants did you receive? And how much were loans and work study?</p>
<p>My breakdown for living off-campus.</p>
<p>$19,094 in grants
<p>Edit: My monthly bills will cost me ~$2200/month not including food/entertainment. Being an adult is expensive.</p>
<p>imma guess you got your cal grant! I didn’t get mine 
That would have been at least $2000 more.</p>
<p>killmyentourage, yours is almost exactly what I got as well. I might be getting an additonal large private scholarship, but that would only take care of the $8k in loans I would need. What really angers me is Cal’s underestimated budget; even though I should be getting an additional $8k with that scholarship ($16k total), if it goes over “their” estimation, it replaces part of the Pell grant or Cal grant rather than get returned to me. You can apply for an increase in the budget (with demonstrated need), but the increase can only be met by loans. </p>
<p>Its really stupid; they figure I should only have basically $900/ month in living expenses with off- campus, which is nearly impossible. Perhaps if I lived in a van and only ate ramen…</p>
<p>why is that not enough?</p>
<p>I have roughly $18k in grants, $7k in loans and $2k in work study. I put down “living off campus” but I am currently living at home. I haven’t been able to find a place in my budget that isn’t still 25 miles from campus or with normal sounding people. </p>
<p>I got one scholarship from UCLA for about $1200, some academic recognition thing, but the rest is standard Cal grants, subsidized loans and work study etc. I really don’t understand how they figure out the prices of living off campus. It is so freakin expensive and when you factor in the absurd gas prices, how the hell does someone live off that if they don’t want to eat $.10 packages of ramen?</p>
<p>Yeah… even sharing a bedroom with someone in Berkeley is like $500/month minimum. I have to move EVERYTHING I own up to school so I had to find a place that was reasonably sized (and allows dogs) since it will be my home. Sharing a 2 BR apt with my friend for ~$2200/month total including utilities. I figure it’s still a bit cheaper than dorming and I can live there all year. But then you throw in things like car payment ($340), car insurance ($170), phone ($100), + my other random bills (~$500)… I think those things are pretty reasonable expenses also… and then I’m like FFFFUUUUUUUUUU.</p>
<p>Depending on where you go to school, it’s <em>possible</em> to live off of your extra money if you have no other expenses and are willing to sacrifice things, but for most people, it isn’t likely.</p>
<p>I actually think I’m going to accept some of my work-study and then try to work under 8 hrs per/wk lol.</p>
<p>thank goodness, all i have is car insurance (70) my car is paid off, and i dont have a phone, i use skype <3</p>
<p>so i should be good.</p>
<p>Not picking on anyone specifically, but a lot of you guys sound really ungrateful for your awesome aid packages. Plenty of college students have to get jobs; it is not meant to be a free ride. You guys are attending some of the best schools in the country, getting tuition and then some paid for FREE, and whining that you want to spend more than the allowed budget? Get a job. No one is entitled to a free college education. It cost money, and you should be grateful for the amount you are already given.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone was complaining about the amount of financial aid they received – more along the lines of realistically expressing the cost of living vs. the amount of extra aid. Although you weren’t “picking on anyone specifically”, it still makes me wonder who/what triggered that type of response.</p>
<p>@Stefan was also talking about how the FA system looks at his extra PRIVATE grant (which he earned academically) as almost like a source of income, and therefore subtracting money from his regular FA NEED-BASED grants.</p>
<p>@wwlink & Keely were merely talking about how they have to offset additional costs by working etc.</p>
<p>In my case, I personally was also not whining, but stating to the OP that my cost of living is much higher than any extra FA, so that in a lot of cases, it isn’t likely that you can live off of that, since that was their original question. I also already owe $60,000 in college loans so I think I can appreciate the monetary value of education 
Additionally, you don’t know the backgrounds of any of the people posting on this thread, so it’s not really appropriate to assume that people are ungrateful towards the FA system.</p>
<p>Besides, there’s a difference between a discussion and an outright complaint about entitlement so I don’t really think your comment was necessary in this particular thread.</p>
<p>Damn straight. I’m happy to be getting what I’m getting, and zamboni there is never a justification to take that position.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone here is looking to live a life of luxury off of their aid. I personally would rather not be absolutely broke every single month. Plus, a lot of us do have jobs or can’t find one. I have one unsteady part time job that hardly gives me gas money, but I cannot seem to find a job anywhere else. You don’t know people’s backgrounds and situations, so it is rather rude to accuse anyone of feeling entitled or ungrateful. Like the previous poster said, it is a discussion about the realities of living expenses vs what is allocated to us for these expenses. To live off campus in a single room in a shared apartment that is in a decent proximity to UCLA is unbelievable expensive. Unless someone hasn’t told me something…</p>