What are ways you can get financial aid? I saw my financial aid award (kind of) from UC Riverside and they just offered me two unsubsidized loans. I have a feeling I will be awarded the same for every UC campus. I’m pretty sure my parents would rather pay for my tuition than take out loans but what are the cases that UCs offer you financial aid when you’re not necessarily considered an applicant that has financial needs? I also doubt my GPA is high enough for any merit-based scholarships (of course Regents Scholarships are out) and UCI Financial Aid told me that based on my information from FAFSA I’m ineligible for need-based financial aid.
I’m of course in no way a financially disadvantaged applicant but my parents have told me that they would need to work more to pay my tuition in full. (my last resort is to go look for scholarships to help my parents pay for tuition)
There really isn’t a way to get need based aid if parent income and assets are too high to be eligible. Work Study jobs go to low income students and they only pay enough to cover incidentals. It wouldn’t be enough for tuition. You can look for a non-work study job on campus if you’re not eligible for work study.
Can your parents afford residential college right now? If not, can you commute to a community college for 2 years to save money?
I’m assuming they can’t since they plan to take out loans but the interest rates are scary high and I’m a transfer so I’m already in my last semester of community college
I had the same issue senior of high school, hence why I went to CC first. Unfortunately, most financial aid is primarily given to people that qualify for it, and work-study is only available to students that have it as an option in their financial aid package. The only way to really help your parents is to apply to as many scholarships as you can and maybe find a job over the summer if you can, and start saving now. You can also try calling the financial aid office and speak to someone on negotiating any possible grant or scholarship they can give you. What I did since starting CC was save up a ton from a part-time job and applying to a bunch of scholarships, also changes to my family financially helped me get more from FAFSA. I was fortunate enough to get awarded the Cal Grant A too, and now I’m gonna go to university for free, so it is a lot of work, but it is doable! I hope you the best of luck!
I know you don’t want to wait this long but I took time off and went to community college a few years ago. Once I turned 24 last year I applied for financial aid independently and this week they awarded me a $14k/year cal grant B. So there’s definitely some perks to taking time off, but if you can find a way to pay for it, I’d go now because time is more valuable than money.
Well I went to community college because I wasn’t accepted to any UCs before (the idea of it is not too great in my family given that my parents were smart people) and again, I’ve worked to transfer in two years. I did remember people getting scholarships and full rides to UCs in high school (my area has a lot of people with money while my family lives in the cheapest apartment we could find) so idk what I was expecting but we apparently don’t have enough to pay for my tuition unless we take out those high interest loans which is very unfavorable that’s why I wanted to see if there were any options for me besides taking out loans
I want to clarify since it wasn’t clear, I am already accepted into UCschoolss and I’ve finished my lower divs listed on assist at CC already (I can probably take 3 maybe 4 more CS and a chem class and that’s about it but that would last me like one more semester at a CC) and I’m not planning to go back to CC (I won’t have any classes to take that would be valuable to me once I transfer) if anything I would have to take classes at a UC if I want to make sure more of my lower divs are completed because I finished most (except 2 of) the strongly recommended courses in addition to my major prep courses (as I said above I could probably add 2 or 3 more classes so I can be a full time student and because I’m just interested in those classes and probably GEs as well). Going back to CC would not be a good use of my time. Thanks for the advice though I think I’ll just find a part time job so I can earn some money since gift aid doesn’t seem like it’ll be offered to me
I’m in the same situation. Parent’s make over 160k combined and the only scholarship I qualify for is the Middle Class Scholarship at UCSB. Yes my parents make enough money to pay for my tuition but I wish there was still a way to help them in some way.
@uclahistory2020 I’m not even eligible for that scholarship:( according to my dad next year I will be but this year we have to take out loans if there are no other options and I really hate the idea of making my parents take out loans and paying it back at such a high interest rate
@hoshizora I totally agree. I hate the thought of that too but I just feel very lucky that my parents are willing to do that! I definitely plan on repaying them in the future
I see that’s very nice of them! We’re trying to avoid it because interest rates are like 4.53% and 7.08% (no wonder US Student Debt is so high) we just bought a house so we’re not swimming in money (I guess they thought it was okay because I was at a CC and my tuition is less than 3k a year)
We do live in a retry affluent area and I saw people at my high school getting full rides to UCs and at least some form of scholarship so I was expecting something like that I guess my GPA isn’t high enough for smart people scholarships and my parents earn too much for any grants or gift aid:(
I was hoping work study would work but it doesn’t…