<p>I am going to be living at CSULB and I was just wondering what to expect from financial aid. Does the financial aid depend on your GPA? I have a 3.15, and my total family income is 30,000. Should I expect the housing to be covered? Will I need a loan? Who do I need to speak to about getting the loan? Any help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>my guesstimate is housing will not be covered for sure.</p>
<p>you need to do everything through FAFSA and enter CSULB school code so they receive your information. just on income doesn’t mean much as family size is taken into account and various other factors (assets, investments, mortgage, etc etc)</p>
<p>a key factor in this is EFC (expected family contribution) this is the amount your parents hsould be able to shsell out to you in terms of $$ per year that you’re attending CSULB (or any other school for that matter)</p>
<p>lets say you hvae a EFC of 0
Then you’ll receive full pell grant (around 5500$)
then maybe you got a cal grant also (x-dollars 1500 - 4500(?))
and then to finish it up you qualify for a State university grant (1200$)</p>
<p>so everything minus the cost of attendance (~22k / year for instate tuition of course)
is the leftover.</p>
<p>stafford loans are capped at around 5500$ i believe (you should go this route first as they are low interest and gov’t backed to my knowledge and you get a 9 month? grace period after dropping school / graduating)</p>
<p>But generally speaking, CSU’s will be a lower cost than UC’s.
My sisters all went through UC’s and they usually averaged 5k in loans / year.
(This was after exhausting work-study / working part time)</p>
<p>My friend who got his aid package from CSULB will have everything exhausted and if he WANTS TO (key point is WANTS TO) he can take out 6.2k in loans / year to cover everything.</p>
<p>By no means necessary do you have to take out that loan, you may feel better taking out 3k and to cover the extra 3k you can pick up a part time job to fulfill that requirement. </p>
<p>Just remember that COA (cost of attendance is a broad figure, it can vary wildly if you factor in vacations, flights, unexpected costs, or even be a lot lower if you are on a budget mindset)</p>
<p>^hope im not putting college students to shame with this horrible grammar and spelling but its 3:04 am and im up posting! .__.</p>
<p>EDIT: note that my sisters only took out 5k / year because our EFC was 700 almost everytime. family size was either 4/3 dependents , depending on the year, and an annual income of ~35k/year.</p>
<p>It depends on your family income, gpa, and your parents education. For Example, my father didnt get any degree, so I’m applicable for a larger reward of financial aid. CSULB Housing won’t be completely covered I don’t think, but the fafsa for you will probably cover more than tuition like it did for me, so you won’t need a very large loan, just enough to cover the rest.</p>
<p>If you’ve filed your FAFSA, which I’m guessing you have, some time soon the school will give you your id and code to log into myCSULB, and from there you can go to your financial aid and “Accept/Decline Rewards”. From there you can accept your grants and also apply for a loan, or you can go to the school’s Financial Aid office in Brotman Hall.</p>
<p>P.S. I’m not absolutely sure, but the total year’s expenses (including housing) should cost around $12,800</p>
<p>P.S. I’m not absolutely sure, but the total year’s expenses (including housing) should cost around $12,800</p>
<p>^if thats true you must be living off campus with your parents.
COA (cost of attendance) is around 20-22k living in dorms / on your own apartment</p>
<p>and education level does not have any effect on aid package. What if everyone put “unknown” … see what i mean?</p>
<p>well i have already done the fafsa, do I deal with the financial aid department now to take care of the loans and such? or do i need to contact someone outside of school regarding the stafford or something similar.</p>
<p>I have just submitted all my documents to the financial aid office so I guess I will find out how much I will get in a few weeks</p>
<p>yes you just wait it out and they’ll email you that the schools have gotten updated information regarding your FAFSA. the school decides how much to disburse to you and you’ll most likely have to take a loan class where they’ll explain your options and how it works blah blah blah.</p>
<p>sit tight and things will pan out. you can check your award status in mycsulb and see how much you will get based on your FAFSA report. i’m doing an dependency override appeal so i wont find out till the review my circumstances… i pray i get it or else i might not be able to attend CSULB :3</p>
<p>stafford is done through the loan / fin aid office … its just titled that. other private loans will be done through applying at the fin. aid office also.</p>
<p>edit: just to really answer your question … my friend whom i referred to his parents make like 30k and he has one other dependent child … so he ended up with the option of taking out 6k / year in loans. that covers everything for living off campus also. various factors apply again, but thats just a figure, dont rely on it so much …</p>
<p>I come from a low income household. I do not dorm though. With no loans, I ended up with a little over $5,000+ extra money after 1 school year. I’m assuming if you do dorm that you will have to pay some portion of your total fees out of your own pocket. However with California budget cuts, I’m sure financial aid packages will decrease for this coming school year, so take that into consideration.</p>
<p>california’s budget crisis is a headache within itself but this doesn’t mean that aid will be reduced / cut out. usually schools can / sorta do run in the red with this type of stuff as they utilized the SUG to reduce costs.</p>
<p>In all honesty, i feel sorry for the shrinking middle-class as they are large contributors of tax revenue and also get shafted by the upper class and the lower class. sup america.</p>
<p>“^if thats true you must be living off campus with your parents.
COA (cost of attendance) is around 20-22k living in dorms / on your own apartment”</p>
<p>I’m living off-campus in an apartment building, very near the school. I’m just estimating Tuition + On-campus housing. For lower division, tuition is just under 3k and Housing for the Academic year is 10k.</p>
<p>[Housing</a> Fees, Housing & Residential Life, CSULB](<a href=“http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/students/housing/campus_housing/fees.htm]Housing”>http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/students/housing/campus_housing/fees.htm)</p>
<p>[Tuition</a> and Fees at CSULB](<a href=“http://www.csulb.edu/depts/enrollment/registration/fees_basics.html]Tuition”>http://www.csulb.edu/depts/enrollment/registration/fees_basics.html)</p>
<p>“and education level does not have any effect on aid package. What if everyone put “unknown” … see what i mean?”</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that it does. But I could be wrong.</p>
<p>i refer to this:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Financial Aid and Scholarships | California State University Long Beach”>Financial Aid and Scholarships | California State University Long Beach]Costs[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Just a reminder, I will be living in an apartment/school housing. Speaking of which, is it too late to apply for that? I would much rather prefer an apartment with a roommate or something rather than a cramped dorm. </p>
<p>The Power of One gave me an idea of how much to expect, considering I will be paying for housing, Im expecting a 5-6k loan a year, which is ok. Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>“i refer to this:”</p>
<p>1.5k travel, 2.5k misc.</p>
<p>Not necessarily the most accurate guideline for everyone. And including miscellaneous is a bit impractical.</p>
<p>“Just a reminder, I will be living in an apartment/school housing. Speaking of which, is it too late to apply for that? I would much rather prefer an apartment with a roommate or something rather than a cramped dorm.”</p>
<p>My thinking exactly. If you’re asking if its too late to apply for a dorm, its not but…at this point I doubt there’d be any openings.</p>
<p>If you mean an apartment, you don’t rent through the school.</p>
<p>But this might help out:</p>
<p>[California</a> State University Long Beach - Roommate Finder](<a href=“http://roommate.csulb.och101.com/]California”>http://roommate.csulb.och101.com/)</p>
<p>great link jrairship thanks!</p>
<p>$1600 for books is high if you rent them rather than purchase. If you didn’t already know, chegg.com has pick-up and drop-off through the CSULB Bookstore.</p>