<p>So I'm planning to apply to CSU Fullerton this fall and the chances of me getting in are VERY high because of 1) I'm local. 2) I have a pretty decent GPA (3.13) </p>
<p>I'm planning to apply for both the Pell Grant AND the Cal Grant.</p>
<p>The cost of me attending CSUF is roughly $6,188 (tuition/fees). I'm going to be commuting, living with my parents, etc. My parents make a little under $19k so they qualify as low income. My family only has 4 people; my parents + myself + my little sister. My EFC is 0.</p>
<p>Do you guys think I could graduate w/ my Bachelor's without going into debt?</p>
<p>If your EFC is zero you will likely get the max on the Pell Grant which is somewhere around $5600.</p>
<p>Since money you get working during the school year will likely go towards gas, food, and other personal expenses, I doubt you will be able to put a lot of money towards tuition or books. </p>
<p>So you will probably have to take out some small loans (subsidized Stafford loans probably) to cover the rest of tuition plus books, but it shouldn’t be much. You’ll be in good shape.</p>
<p>If your family’s income is as low as you say AND you commute, then you can graduate debt free.</p>
<p>As a Calif resiident, you’d get a Cal Grant that pays all you tuition at a CSU. Plus, you’d get a Pell grant which would pay for your books, gasoline, etc.</p>
<p>You could get a part-time job for anything else.</p>
<p>[CSUMentor</a> - Financial Aid - PAIS](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU) says that, based on your given parameters, your net price at CSU Fullerton after applying grants will be:</p>
<p>$4,104 living with parents ($16,599 cost of attendance - $5,550 Pell grant - $1,473 Cal grant - $5,472 state university grant)</p>
<p>$11,143 living in the residence hall ($23,638 cost of attendance - $5,550 Pell grant - $1,473 Cal grant - $5,472 state university grant)</p>
<p>$11,916 living off-campus, not with parents ($24,411 cost of attendance - $5,550 Pell grant - $1,473 Cal grant - $5,472 state university grant)</p>
<p>In the living with parents case, you may be able to earn that much from job earnings to avoid loans. In the other cases, it is likely that you will need both job earnings and student loans to cover the net price.</p>
<p>Note that CSU Fullerton is impacted for all majors. [Admissions</a> and Records - Admissions Requirements](<a href=“Redirect”>Redirect) has more information on impaction there.</p>
<p>Wow, the misinformation in this thread is staggering!</p>
<p>Post #2, without even looking at the numbers (and perhaps not being familiar with Cal Grants), announces that Azaria will definitely need loans, “just like” her kids did. Post #5 ignores Azaria’s statement of her cost to attend CSU Fullerton, and adds another $10k to her “net price” for the year!</p>
<p>Posts # 4 & 7 have it right - between Cal Grants and Pell grants (and possibly a part-time job, if needed), the OP should be able to graduate debt free.</p>
<p>Good for you, Azaria, to have come up with an affordable plan for college!!!</p>
<p>Yes, it is possible to graduate from college debt free, and I hope you do manage to do so. With scrimping working, and if all the grants work out the wya they can, it can happen. Try to do this, because it is sweet to be loan free. For all the issues my kids have had, that they did not have college loans in the mix has made it just that much easier.</p>
<p>Also, if things go awry, it’s good to have those loans there as a failsafe measure. My college kid needed to go there last year, despite careful planning. Just a bunch of things came up and the loans were an option. Had he used them to pay for college expenses that year, it would have not have been an available option. He’s pounding salt trying to pay them off–wanted to do so by the end of this summer, but now it looks like it’s the end of this year, in order to give him some margin. He’s learned how interest accrues and how difficult it is to pay off money while still living life and incurring expenses. And this was for $3500. Gonna take him a year and a half to repay.</p>
<p>I’m going to be a first time freshman! I do not need FinAid to cover my commuting expenses.I just need them to cover tuition/books. CSUF is a four year public university. :-)</p>
<p><strong><em>a. Estimated tuition and fees $6078 </em></strong><strong><em>b. Estimated books and supplies $1720 </em></strong><strong><em>c. Estimated room and board $4401 </em></strong><strong><em>d. Estimated other expenses </em></strong>*****(Personal expenses, transportation, etc.) $4400</p>
<p>That book estimate that the CSU website provides is ridiculously high. A student who buys used books, buys online, or rents books can probaby cut that in half.</p>
<p>Hopefully the parents will be paying for food, laundry, etc at home. If the student wants to eat some meals at school, then his Pell Grant or job earnings could cover some of that.</p>
<p>Personal expenses can vary. If the student is living at home, and parents are providing shampoo and toothpaste, then that number can be much lower (that figure is about $100 a week for “personal expenses and transportation”. Besides, a summer job and a part-time school year job should cover personal and travel expenses. </p>
<p>If the school is a distance away and the student goes to a high school with other CSUF bound students, he might be able to carpool to reduce gas prices. If the school isn’t too far away from home, the student could ride a bike on good weather days. </p>
<p>I don’t know if the OCTD goes from his home area to CSUF. If so, that could be another option for transportation. </p>
<p>It is still possible for a low income commuting student to graduate debt free from a CSU.</p>
<p>*So I’m planning to apply to CSU Fullerton this fall and the chances of me getting in are VERY high because of 1) I’m local. 2) I have a pretty decent GPA (3.13) *</p>
<p>that GPA is not strong for CSUF. Is that your CSU GPA? If not, calculate that on CSU Mentor website.</p>
<p>If you don’t get into Fullerton and you don’t want to take out loans to go elsewhere, then you can go to one of the nearby CCs for the first two years and then transfer.</p>
<p>Especially since it doesn’t take much to just plug the OP’s numbers into the net price calculator for CSU Fullerton to get an estimate of financial aid and net price.</p>
<p>I am surprised that, even with the availability of net price calculators, lots of people make assumptions about financial aid that may not apply to the specific situation in question.</p>
<p>As M2CK pointed out above, the projected “cost of attendance” on the CSU net price calculator is grossly inflated, and includes room/board costs even for students such as azaria, who will be commuting from home and not paying anything for room and board. Yes, obviously that differs from family to family . . . but in this case, azaria knows what her expenses will be and said as much in her first post.</p>
<p>She also clearly stated that she is applying, not attending, this fall, so the March 2013 deadline for Cal Grant applications is utterly irrelevant.</p>
<p>This is a simple scenario - there’s no need to overcomplicate it.</p>
<p>A college student living at home does have room and board costs, although they may not be a neat line item on the parents’ or student’s budget. For example, the student eats food and uses utilities. The parents may have to maintain a larger residence than if the student were not a normal resident there. Obviously, it is lower cost than if the student lived on his/her own on or near campus, but it is not zero cost (though probably not all that different from the cost of a high school student).</p>
<p>ucbalumnus - Clearly, it costs the parents something to feed and house this student. Whether or not they expect her to pay that cost is another matter entirely . . . and, in this case, she’s said it’s not an expense she needs to worry about. If she’s not paying that cost, it doesn’t need to be calculated into her “cost of attendance."</p>