<p>If I can get a BA with $30k in debt or less, I consider that a success.</p>
<p>Not to brag, but totally to brag. I was in the military and get a sick deal. The GI Bill pays for all my schooling plus gives me BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) which is about $2000 a month. On top of that, all financial aid that I am eligible for (about $18,000) gets sent directly to me. So doing some math, I will make $36,000 in 9 months of school. I believe it is all tax-free too.</p>
<p>Hopefully I will not get into much debt, I have a really sweet deal too, not through the government’s military though. </p>
<p>My financial aid covers almost everything. I will be starting Berkeley and for the semester I owe out of my pocket $4,633 (give or take.)
But I also have work-study and Berkeley has this really cool option that you can convert how much of the money you want to pay in either loans or work-study.</p>
<p>The first semester I am going to take all loans. From then on work-study.</p>
<p>I do not want to incur more than $8000 in debt. That is my goal.
How realistic is it? I don’t know.</p>
<p>between 0 and 5k</p>
<p>I’ll quit my job my senior year to focus on things(internships, clubs, etc.)</p>
<p>if I were really obsessed about debt elimination, I’d be ending college with around $20k saved up. I’d rather enjoy life a little, get higher grades and have a good shot at grad school</p>
<p>However much it costs me to find my own apartment w/ no roommates.</p>
<p>I’ll have at least $16k thanks to Davis’ unorthodox Regent’s and scholarship process that they don’t inform you of AT ALL. Whenever I deal with Davis, it reminds me of dealing with a health insurance company. It’s like they created red tape so they don’t have to deal with the inefficiencies of their bureaucracy, which is really tragic because the people that need the help the most are least equipped to deal with bureaucracy.</p>
<p>“Oh yeah, we need an additional form to the forms we requested of you, but it’s too late for you submit the form” that you weren’t told about when you asked about the forms you needed; “oh, it may say that you can submit it online, but we need you to mail it and its past the due date so there are late fees, and the funding for what you’re applying for is gone”; “call back in a week”; (a week later) “call back in a week”; “I can’t really help you right now,” if you’re a believer pray for a response; “by the time we processed it, it was too late”; “leave a message, but leaving a message isn’t the best way to get a response”; “we have a lot of applicants but we will get to you eventually”; “scholarships are really competitive”; “yes, our average transferring GPA is < 3.5 but…”; “the status will update after the deadline but I need you to make a decision,” which is dependent on the status, “before the deadline.”</p>
<p>I have talked to some really kind and helpful people in all of the administrative departments at Davis, but net-net it has been a terrible experience. The people themselves are great but the systems organizing the people are terrible and/or deprived of resources.</p>
<p>Maybe all Universities are like this. This is my first such experience, after all.</p>
<p>At least 2/3rds of my loans are subsidized.</p>
<p>does anyone have a 0 EFC? How much is the net cost for you guys? </p>
<p>W/ an efc of 4k I have to take out 13k (in loans) each year…</p>
<p>Probably about $10k for the 3 years I’ll most likely be there.</p>
<p>My EFC is 0 and my net cost for UCSD is 9000. But they are assuming I need 14000 for living expenses and my grandparents don’t make me pay for rent.</p>
<p>wow gaiou! lucky you…</p>
<p>I have an EFC of 0. It isn’t much help at Davis. Despite me EFC being so low, they still expect me to contribute $3500.</p>
<p>Given the meaning of EFC this seems totally contradictory; no?</p>
<p>Yeah… I’m still expected pay 10k with an EFC of 0.</p>
<p>ya but at least you aren’t at Ucla w/ an EFC of 0 & still have to take out 9k… Out of all the Uc’s I applied to the order of least expensive to most expensive was:</p>
<p>Uci > UCSD > UCDavis > Ucla </p>
<p>figures I chose the most expensive school!!!</p>
<p>edelyn- is that 10k each year or 5k per year?</p>
<p>Really! UCLA was surprisingly cheaper than SD for me.</p>
<p>And that’s about 10k/year. :</p>
<p>I got an EFC of 0, first time in 4 years I think, I mighta gotten one first semester ever but… I can’t remember lol. Oh and to the post I’m very late replying to, I did have BOG. The $6,000 was to try to afford an apartment in Santa Barbara to attend the CCC in person… It got burned because of some bizzaro circumstances. The other stafford loan money just went by slowly, and some had to help my family pay for rent (and part of a new laptop for my mother who’s also attending a few classes a year to try and change jobs to become an accountant, our desktop took a dump around late December 2008.</p>
<p>Edelyn- really? wow I guess the financial awarding process moves beyond EFC.</p>