<p>well i turned in the fasa and the efc comes out to be 8k; what does this mean? Does this mean I receive 8k from UCLA? and what is the likelihood of UCLA actually meeting my financial needs? are they reserved when it comes to giving money out? Thanks for you replies</p>
<p>EFC means that they expect your family to pay 8 grand. They will offer you financial aid in the form of scholarships, grants, loans. So you should get aid in the area of 14-15 grand? I forgot how much UCLA assumes you will be paying for everything (I think it was around 23k), but you'll be getting something in that area. The remainder you need to pay yourself. My EFC was like 6 or 7k so I got aid in the amount of 23-7k. The 23k is really exaggerated, so you end up probably really spending 19k if you live on campus. At least thats in my case. </p>
<p>I think they give adequate amount of money depending on your situation. I discussed this really late with them and they still gave me a nice package.</p>
<p>If you're OOS, don't expect anything.</p>
<p>so, how do they calculate that anyways? i remember doing fafsa but i didn't get any money :(</p>
<p>I remember coming across a calculator that asked you to input stuff like your mom and dad's income, their assets, your assets, etc and it would produce your EFC. I hope someone still has a link to that, but its based roughly off what your parents make and their assets.</p>
<p>i think i remember. but i think it is completely unreasonable to expect that your parents will contribute 60k to your education a year.</p>
<p>Altema, so did you actually end up paying 19k/year for you undergrad education?</p>
<p>Emmeline I am in-state.</p>
<p>In my case my parents cant really pay above 8k, and they are not strong believers in taking loans as undegrads, so my question really is does UCLA ever give out 23-8k; or is it inevitable that I have to take loans?</p>
<p>I don't have the calculations off the top of my head, but UCLA quotes you like 23k that you will spend here while living here. Some deductions you can easily take off are stuff like transportation which you won't really do if you live here, you probably wont spend 1500$ on books in a year, and your health insurance is waived if you have your own. I'm guessing I pay around 19k a year. All I know is that you PROBABLY won't pay 23k for your education as UCLA says. </p>
<p>I think it is inevitable that you will have to take loans. Part of the 23-8k will probably be loans. Of the 16k or so of aid, 6k of it is roughly loans. The loans are relatively okay because the interest does not accrue over time. When you graduate, they will start to accrue after like 6 months.</p>
<p>Yes to the loans... my EFC has been about $8000 the past three years and every year I've had to take out at least one loan.</p>
<p>how many scholarships did you guys apply to/receive?</p>
<p>The scholarships you get from financial aid, as far as I know, are not ones you apply for. My friend got a scholarship, but he didn't apply for it.</p>
<p>Are you referring to the Academic Competitiveness Grant, Altema?
Well, aren't your the person who thought middle class was >100k?
Yeah that's true. I know some people with EFCs near zero who got basically a "full ride" to UCLA (that is, no loans or even work-study).</p>
<p>i have 0 EFC, my package has lots of loans.</p>
<p>It is more likely to recieve some loans then to recieve no loans.</p>
<p>Even if you received every grant,... you would still have space for loans. The university grant only kicks in after your loans.</p>
<p>WIth no shcolarships and all possible grants, there is still space for laons.
I think the logic is that yous hould pay for part of your education ..</p>
<p>Yep, even if you have 0 EFC, and get max Cal Grant B and Pell Grant, University Grants will only go so far in covering the rest of your expenses. In my case, I still had to pay $4900 in loans, and $2500 in work study, even after University Scholarships and University Grants. </p>
<p>Universities do want you to contribute to your own education; whether that is applying for scholarships, applying for jobs, or seeking help from relatives is up to you.</p>
<p>wow , my chance at avoiding loans/works-study are pretty much zero, right? </p>
<p>Malishka, do you mind posting your stats? and how much in merit-aid you received?</p>
<p>To clarify my question:</p>
<p>When you guys said you still had to pay several thousands after the automatic financial aid, how come you didn't apply to private scholarships to cover that cost, or 1) are private scholarships very difficult to get and 2) they don't cover that much and you still had to pay 6K?</p>
<p>Numerous scholarships are available so difficulty and amounts can vary across the board. Definitely apply to any and all. I did and it paid off (literally).</p>
<p>I had about $7400 in loans and work-study that I had to pay. I did apply for scholarships; to me, the easiest ones to get are local scholarships. Sure, a lot of local scholarships are small (usually less than $1000, in my experience). You may get lucky though; our agricultural town has some very successful businessmen, and I managed to cover all of my loans and work-study based solely on local scholarships. </p>
<p>National scholarships are harder to get, due to their very nature of being open to everyone in the nation. Fastweb would be your best bet here. Also, don't discount UCLA-specific scholarships, such as the Alumni scholarship. From what I've heard from Alumni scholars, the scholarship itself isn't terribly hard to earn.</p>
<p>for one, any shcolarships will reduce your GRANT amounts first usually... liek University grant amounts.</p>
<p>if yoru EFC is 0</p>
<p>and you get 5k of outside scholarships, that reduces your need by 5k , they dont have to reduce your laons by 5k</p>