<p>Aid Year</p>
<p>Estimated Cal Grant A
Grant
11,124.00</p>
<p>Federal Pell Grant
Grant
2,900.00</p>
<p>UC Santa Cruz Grant
Grant
589.00</p>
<p>Federal Perkins Loan
Loan
1,200.00</p>
<p>Federal Direct Subsidized Loan
Loan
3,500.00</p>
<p>Federal Direct Unsubsidized Ln
Loan
2,000.00</p>
<p>Federal Work-Study Option
Work/Study
1,500.00</p>
<p>Parent Loan Option-ApplyOnline
Loan
9,152.00</p>
<p>Aid Year Totals</p>
<p>31,965.00</p>
<p>I'm very confused and don't know if this is a good aid package. Can someone please explain it to me? My family's income is under 80,000 and supposedly the UC systems Blue & Gold program is supposed to cover my tuition. Why is it not displayed?</p>
<p>Sdk, I don’t know a thing about UC packages, but the bottom line is what counts and if you and your family can afford it. Does it matter if this is bad package, but all you are going to get and your least expensive option, or that it is a stellar package, but you absolutely can’t afford the money you need to have by August?</p>
<p>Blue & Gold is a “guarantee” that your tuition is covered–and only kicks in if some other source of grant money does not. Since your CalGrant covers tuition, the B&G isn’t activated. (Students do not get to double up, such as a CalGrant for 11K that covers tuition and then an extra B&G for another 11K for a total of 22K in California grant-based monies…you can only get up to the approx 11K tuition costs from all of those sources in terms of B&G coverage.) You got as good as you are going to get in terms of B&G.</p>
<p>Your Fed Pell, Fed Direct Sub Loan, Fed Direct Unsub Loan and I believe also some aspects of your Fed Work-Study are pretty much fixed amounts - you were likely awarded as much as you were federally able to receive based on your income level and federal limits. So you can’t get much better in that area. </p>
<p>So, yes, this is pretty much as good as it gets for a UC package in terms of B&G and Federal aid and loans. The only area left for improvement would be OTHER scholarships, of which there seems to be none other than a very small UCSC grant.</p>
<p>In terms of the approx. 9K your parents are being asked to contribute, you can work in summers to come up with at least 3K of that, and you can also work during the school year above and beyond the work-study offer at another job for another several thousand. However, in the end, you need to decide with your parents if all these loans plus the 9K is affordable for you. There is always CCC for two years followed by transfer again to a UC.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>