Financial aid package?

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi, this is my first post and I was wondering whether my financial aid was good or not..</p>

<p>Estimated Cal Grant A- 11,124.00
UC Santa Cruz Grant- 1,885.00
Federal Perkins Loan- 1,200.00
Federal Direct Subsidized Loan- 3,500.00
Federal Direct Unsubsidized Ln- 2,000.00
Federal Work-Study Option- 1,500.00
Parent Loan Option-ApplyOnline- 10,756.00
Aid Year Totals- 31,965.00</p>

<p>can somebody help break this down for me?
also, is there any way to reduce the parent loan? :/
thank you very very much!</p>

<p>I have another option foe community college and then transfer, which im ohkay with. I like UCSC very much, but i was wondering if its worth taking out all of these loans?</p>

2

<p>Your parents don’t have to take the loan out if they have some other way of coming up with the money. If they have no other way of coming up with the money, and the loans would be a burden for them, then yes it is too much in loans.</p>

<p>As you qualify for calgrant but not Pell I am guessing your family income is lowish (low enough for Calgrant) but not very low (not low enough for Pell). Based on the fact that income is low enough for Calgrant, it seems to me that that would be a lot of debt for your parents to take on.</p>