<p>I do plan to spend a significant amount of time searching and applying for scholarships, but I heard the university just subtracts the amount of scholarship money to win from the financial aid off that the university offers. </p>
<p>ie:
Cal offers $3000 in grant
I win a $1000 scholarship, and it's sent to Cal
Cal reduces its grant from $3000 to $2000.</p>
<p>Is this true? If so I don't have much incentive to spend so much time applying for scholarships.</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>Your initial offer is supposed to cover 100% of your costs (minus your EFC).</p>
<p>If you report other scholarships, they'll subtract that money from your initial offer. You still end up with the same amount of money.</p>
<p>And from what I've seen, it seems like they subtract it off from "free" money (grants, scholarships, etc) first.</p>
<p>No, it's not true. DarkPyro, you are wrong. They reduce your loan FIRST. The only exception is with the health insurance waiver; that is split between the grant and loan amounts.</p>
<p>If your loan eligibility gets to zero, then it will come from grants. So in the instance you mentioned--let's say you have a $3000 grant and are eligible for $5500 subsidized loan. Reporting a $2000 outside scholarship you received would reduce your loan eligibility to $3500, but your full original grant would remain.</p>
<p>There is obviously still much incentive to get outside scholarships since you are essentially changing subsidized loan money into grant money.</p>
<p>When I called, I asked about CalGrant. Mine isn't reflected on my award yet because I'm a transfer and I need to reassign the schools. Anyway.</p>
<p>When I called, they told me it takes off in this order:</p>
<p>University Grant
Subsidized Loan
Unsubsidized Loan
Work Study</p>
<p>In other words, it takes away the free money first and then down from there. How useful, eh?</p>
<p>Undecided, that order is correct except you are viewing it upside down. It goes from the bottom up with grant being changed last.</p>
<p>CalGrants do not reduce your Berkeley award, neither does the Byrd award nor does the Alumni scholarship ....so, if you receive any of those, it will be added to your total grants (I do not know how it affects the loans) You should be sure to check when the outside scholarships are awarded, sometimes you need to remind them that those grants do not reduce university grants.</p>
<p>I am merely offering what I was told. In my experience, CalGrants DO reduce the grant award from the UCs. At UCSC, when my CalGrant was added to my package, it was dollar-for-dollar taken away from the University Grant I was given.</p>
<p>Can someone call to verify what they say? I know it makes SENSE to take away from work aid and then unsub loans and then sub loans, but that's not the point. In my experience, it's really not particularly helpful unless you can amass more than your grant aid to begin with.</p>
<p>
[quote]
At UCSC, when my CalGrant was added to my package, it was dollar-for-dollar taken away from the University Grant I was given.
[/quote]
How much did you have for loans at the time? </p>
<p>It's easy to call the office, which I've done; they've told me the order just like you listed, but again, with reductions coming from the bottom up.</p>
<p>I don't know the exact numbers anymore, but I received roughly $8.5k in university grant, $2.6k in subsidized loan, $2000 in work study and some other stuff in school scholarships and Pell grant and the like. When I got my CalGrant for roughly $6k (a bit less), it was taken EXACTLY out of my university grant.</p>
<p>I think it's because you had met your budget with grants, undecided. The loan you were offered was probably in addition to your expected budget (that's something they often do). It would make sense since it seems like you qualified for quite a bit of aid.</p>
<p>For those who have an estimated budget that is partly fulfilled with loans, they, again, reduce the loan first--grants, etc. need to fill up the whole estimated budget; once that happens the grants will be reduced if you have additional grants from outside sources.</p>
<p>Actually looking at your numbers again, the 2.6k subsidized loan sticks out. 5500 is the maximum subsidized loan; if a student has an EFC of over 5500 they start to receive grants. But I would think they would take away the 2.6k loan first and then remove the rest from the university grant(s), assuming the loan was actually part of your budget.</p>
<p>No, $2.6k is the maximum for a first year. My EFC my first year was somewhere around $2000, I think. Can't've been much, given that I received Pell grants (though small -- I think around $800). </p>
<p>My budget was certainly not met with the grant, unless you refer only to the university fees, in which case that's probably true. But the people at the financial aid office I've spoken too never looked specifically at my file when they told me, without exception, that my CalGrant and other subsequent outside awards would come away from my financial aid in the order I typed earlier.</p>
<p>"I am merely offering what I was told. In my experience, CalGrants DO reduce the grant award from the UCs. At UCSC, when my CalGrant was added to my package, it was dollar-for-dollar taken away from the University Grant I was given."</p>
<p>There are two different things being discussed here. The original question is specifically asking about outside scholarships. G1a2b3e answered the question with the "ordering" of which type of financial aid award gets reduced first to last. Another question was posed by undecided, and copied above, that shifts from talking about outside scholarships to Cal Grant, which is not an "ouside scholarship." Cal Grants are guaranteed and are put into your financial aid package first. University Grants are most often used to close gaps; that is, these grants are used by the university as a sort of General College Scholarship so the FAO can meet the EFC amount with a diversity of financial aid awards, such as a combination of scholarship money in addition to loans and work-study earnings. </p>
<p>Hope that solves the confusion,
TTG</p>
<p>Thanks for bringing that point up, ttgiang15.</p>
<p>So for outside scholarships, do you know the order?</p>