<p>So on the Berkeley financial aid website, they list the budget at around 26,000. Is this really what one year @ Cal costs?</p>
<p>This is what my fin aid looks like at the moment:</p>
<p>17,792 Federal Parent Loans PLUS1
3,500 Federal Subsidized Loan
1,600 Federal Perkins Loans
1,900 Work Study
1,594 Scholarship</p>
<p>Which ones do you think I should accept? I really don't see how one year at Berkeley would cost me 25,000. Also, would it be smart to turn some of the Federal Parent loan to Work Study? I think that I'm going to accept the Subsidized Loan right now, but I am not sure about the other stuff since I wouldn't want to accept more loans than I needed.</p>
<p>I am going to be living in a Clark Kerr Triple, roughly 12,000 a year, but I am trying to transfer to a Unit triple to make it cheaper.</p>
<p>$11,000 for unit triple+$7,656 mandatory fees=$18,656
Keep in mind you also have to pay for books and personal expenses (eating out, personal hygiene products, maybe some clothes.)</p>
<p>The Federal PLUS loan sucks. If you can avoid taking it, do it. Accept the scholarship, accept work study</p>
<p>$1,276 health insurance (if you have your own, then you don't have to pay this.)</p>
<p>Off campus budget, Freshman, family income under $40k</p>
<p>Fall 2008 & Spring 2009
FED.DIR.LOAN-SUB1 FINANCIAL AID OFFICE Loan $1,750.00
WORK STUDY ELIGIBILITY FINANCIAL AID OFFICE Work $1,792.50
FEDERAL PELL GRANT FINANCIAL AID OFFICE General $1,839.00
FED.PARENT LOAN PLUS1 FINANCIAL AID OFFICE Loan $546.00
FEDERAL PERKINS LOAN FINANCIAL AID OFFICE Loan $800.00
FRESHMAN SCHOLARSHIP FINANCIAL AID OFFICE General $575.50
ESTIMATED CAL GRANT A FINANCIAL AID OFFICE Information $3,566.00</p>
<p>Approximate total for this award year $21,738</p>
<p>yea, they could be over estimations
i heard uci is really 15k only, but they say it's 23k or so
then i heard cal is really as much as ucsd.. which is 24k
buuuut keep in mind, the cost of tuition is going up this year
so idk how much it really is this yr</p>
<p>Shua, I told you how much a unit triple and mandatory fees are. That's all somebody can tell you for certain. Everything else depends on how frugal you are.</p>
<p>You can easily spend $1000 a year on books, if you need big new fancy ones- some times you can find a great cheap book on Amazon, sometimes they will be almost $200 for only one book.</p>
<p>After room & board & tuition & health insurance & books, you have travel too & from Berkeley and you have living expenses whilst you are there- most people seem to figure a couple of hundred a month for just living.</p>
<p>Your loans should be given out each semester, you could take the higher amount and see how you do first term, then reduce the second term loans if you can before they are administered.</p>