<p>hey everyone. ive been trying for months with the cal grant student aid commision to get my cal grant sorted out. i finally did. i qualify for cal grant B which it estimates to be 9k. as soon as I learned this, I emailed the financial aid office (at uc merced im going there) to let them know. they said</p>
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If you do have a Cal Grant, we will reduce your Bobcat Scholarship by the same amount as that scholarship was awarded assuming you did not have a Cal Grant.
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<p>okay, ***. my bobcat scholarship is $11,990 for the year. so by getting my 9k cal grant, i lose my 11k scholarship? how does that help me? like i said, i spent months emailing the cal grant aid commision to get my info sorted out (they made errors, told me to mail in another form, and mailed in forms take 6 weeks to process + delivery time....).</p>
<p>i was just wondering, has anyone had something similar happen? is this a common occurence? i read on here that they (UC's) usually scale back what you were already given if you get a cal grant, but this obviously puts me in a worse spot and makes me wish i never bothered to get a cal grant in the first place....................</p>
<p>you will not lose your entire scholarship, they will reduce it by 9k (Cal Grant)
11,900- 9,000= your scholarship will be 2,900</p>
<p>They way Cal works (and I’m thinking it’s the same with Merced) is they assume you are NOT getting a Cal Grant and they award you the amount you are eligible for and lump it in with your institutional aid.
So, for example, if your cost of attendance is $20,000 and you have $5,000 EFC you have $15,000 in unmet need. Now, let’s say you are awarded $10,000 in aid and $5,000 in loans.
The $10,000 in aid will come from ANY aid you are eligible for (Pell, CalGrant, Smart Grant, etc), but you have to remember that $10,000 is the LIMIT. Meaning if you don’t qualify for Pell, CalGrant, or any of the others you will get the $10,000 strictly from institutional aid (aka Bobcat Scholarship). If you do qualify for the previously mentioned grants, then they will give you whatever difference between that and the $10,000 in institutional aid.
This is how most people in the UC’s get financial aid, even if they aren’t poor.
Even if your cost of attendance increases, your aid will probably NOT increase and you will have to take out more loans (or apply for outside scholarships which do NOT count against the $10,000).</p>
<p>I hope this makes sense. If not, PM me.</p>