<p>I have a FAFSA efc of 0. This means i get the maximum in pell grants as long as im full time, 4500 a year, plus FSEOGs, ACGs, CalGrants. I plan on staying at CC for 3 years, due to math prereqs, and i estimate i'll have earned ~15000 in grants by the time I transfer. of course ill have bit less due to books and stuff, but i dont feel like going to deep into the math right now.</p>
<p>Due to my financial situation, i believe i am eligble for the UC Blue and Gold plan (Students whose parents make less than 70k a yr have their statewide fees waived (tuition) )</p>
<p>So basically after I transfer, the only thing i'll need to worry about is the cost of living. The cost of living is ~12k a year. I plan on staying at UC for 2 years, so basically it costs 25k for me to go to a UC.</p>
<p>I plan on saving most of my grants before and after for this. I think i will only be a couple grand short though... ~5k ish? but this is only accounting for the standard state/federal grants. </p>
<p>I dont know a lot about the grants UC will give me after I transfer. Does anyone know what kind of grants UC offers to low income ppl like me? WIll I even have to take out any loans?</p>
<p>And is anyone else doing something similar? Am I horribly misunderstanding something? Any advice in general?</p>
<p>I have an EFC of 0 and have gotten a “full ride” from UCLA, which includes living on campus. I definitely recommend saving that money (as tempting as it may be to waste it as a lot of CCCers I know do) because you never know when you could use that money…especially in Uni (I’ve heard from my older cousin who’s at Cal now, haha). </p>
<p>I have an EFC of 0 also. Fed grants and loans are paying for my school, and I won’t be more than 20,000 in debt once I finish. If I have extra, I will try to save it since I won’t be working as much once I am a full-time student and it will help jumpstart paying back my loans once I graduate.</p>
<p>20k…thats actually a bit much, honestly. am i being unrealistic when i expect that i wont be more than ~5k in debt? I realize that sounds kinda ridiculous, but not many people have 0 EFCs.</p>
<p>^Welll I was a bit irresponsible a few years ago and took out a higher amount in loans than I needed, so I already have some debt from student loans. The 20k is an over-estimation, also.</p>
<p>I’m a little confused about what you were talking about.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure you don’t receive the financial aid in like check/cash form. I think the school takes care of it for you and if you have more financial aid than all your fees (inc. room&board) then you won’t get it. Am I wrong??</p>
<p>Dudemanguy, do you currently have a laptop? If not and if you’re going to get a laptop then get a MacBook Pro. It will last a long time and will be reliable. I had this super brainy MIT friend who did a huge analysis on computers and he concluded that it’s almost always worth it to purchase the higher-end computer because it ends up costing less in terms of cost/time.</p>
<p>Im currently using a 5 year old VAIO desktop. To be honest it works just fine for what im using it for (web surfing, MS Word, light Photoshop sometimes). Does a laptop really help that much?</p>
<p>if get it ill just get it from amazon. The Apple student discount is only $100 off, so it’s $1100 down from $1200. then ill have to pay sales tax which is about 100 bucks which cancels it out. if i order it from amazon, it’s $1160, no tax, like $8 shipping. I’ll save like 30 bucks.</p>
<p>Amazon is out of the model I want though (13.3/2.4GHZ). Im not in any rush to buy one though.</p>