The Pell grant will be awarded automatically - you don’t need to do anything. The loan is something you’ll be able to get if you fill out the paperwork for it. I’m assuming the financial aid office will make the loan application available to you.
Your total awards will be slightly different depending on whether you opt for Cal Grant A or Cal Grant B, but whether or not it’s worth it depends on your individual financial circumstances. The California Student Aid Commission automatically awards you Cal Grant A if you qualify because it’s a larger sum of money than Cal Grant B, but if you request B before any monies have been disbursed, then you can be switched. I believe you’d make the request through your school financial aid office.
Why would you switch? Well, with A, you get a fixed amount for four years. With B, you receive a book stipend only your freshman year, and tuition plus the stipend in the following years. If you’re at a UC, your freshman year tuition will be covered by supplementary grants. So, your total award would consist of the B grant plus those supplementary grants.
At this point, B is looking like the better deal, right? Your tuition gets covered for all four years, plus you get the book stipend for four years. But there’s a catch. Read on . . .
The Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan guarantees only that your UC tuition & fees will be covered by some type of gift aid. One type of gift aid is a Cal Grant. Another type is a Pell grant. And still another type is that Rotary Club scholarship you were awarded by your hometown Rotary Club (as an example).
So, go back to the freshman year tuition that was not covered by Cal Grant B. Blue and Gold guarantees that it will be covered by gift aid. If you don’t have a Pell Grant or other scholarship, the college itself (in your case, UCI) will cover your tuition and fees with a UCI grant. But you do have a Pell grant, so all UCI is going to cover is the difference between your Pell grant and the actual cost of tuition & fees. So, UCI grant = Tuition + Fees - Pell grant.
And if you have outside scholarships, your UCI grant will be reduced by that amount, as well.
Now do the math. by selecting B, you gain the book stipend ($1,648) x four years. But you lose one year of Pell Grant ($4,780). (Note that you don’t really lose the Pell grant - it just gets applied to your tuition in your freshman year.) So, freshman year, you have about $3k less to spend on housing and other expenses (remember, you lost the Pell, but gained the book stipend). In subsequent years, you have $1,648 extra each year. So, yes, assuming you don’t also have outside scholarships, you come out ahead by selecting B . . . but that could also leave you without enough money during your freshman year.
Don’t take my word for this, though. Before you make any changes, sit down with a financial aid counselor at Irvine and confirm all of these calculations, and make sure that your tuition will, in fact, be covered.