<p>I am currently on a full merit based scholarship at UCSD, if I transfer, how will the other colleges calculate my financial aid? </p>
<p>Has anyone been in a similar situation before? Am I screwed?</p>
<p>each college/university calculates their own merit and financial aid based on the information you five (via the fafsa or profile). Outside scholarships (those awarded by other organizations -- like the American Legion or Walmart) are not impacted by transferring, usually, but they are commonly figured into the calculation of the award given by the school.</p>
<p>In your case, you would lose your full merit scholarship and you would have to see if any scholarships are available at the new school for transfer students -- they are usually very limited.</p>
<p>I would advise you to stay at UCSD and look elsewhere for grad school.</p>
<p>so would I qualify for financial aid or not? do they consider my current scholarship as my income?</p>
<p>if the scholarship is paying tuition -- it is not income. If it is paying room and board, it can get a little complicated -- but it should not be counted as income. It may require an extra visit to get it straightened out, though.</p>
<p>Is your parent's income low enough to qualify for substantial need based aid? transfer students tend to end up with larger amounts of loans and smaller grants than freshman.</p>
<p>I am not a fan of UCSD, and the major that I want to go into is not offered here. So I am pretty set on transfering, and I don't really care if I have to get a loan, but I am fairly confident that they will not count my merit scholarship as income because it is obviously conditional.</p>
<p>Also, if the finaid is really really bad or something, then I'll just stay at UCSD. there is no risk in just applying, so nyah.</p>
<p>But one the schools that I want to go to is UCB, and it is in-state, and even without finaid, I should be able to afford it.</p>
<p>sounds like you have a plan!</p>
<p>What may happen when you fill out the financial aid paperwork is that the scholarship may get counted as income (or at least any part that pays for more than tuition). If that happens, ask for a "professional judgement". That is the official program where you take in documentation of your situation and discuss it with a financial aid officer. This is the same thing that happens if a parent has lost a job and so the income is lower than what the stats show.</p>
<p>The important thing to do is to file the fafsa and the school financial aid paperwork as soon as you can! do the fafsa in january, if possible. That way you can head off any problems before they impact your financial aid. sometimes schools decide who gets the grants early on, and if you haven't gotten any issues squared away -- you may lose out!</p>
<p>good luck!</p>