My aid drop if I decide to commute. But by how much? UCI

Paying for College
1

<p>I got my aid award based on my original plan of living on campus freshman year, but I'm questioning whether it will be worth $10,000. My mom lives about 15 minutes away from campus. I found out that they will revise my aid package if I live at home. If they are going to take a significant amount I will reconsider living in the dorms.
Has anyone been in a similar situation or know how much they will take from my grants?
I'm eligible for the Blue and Gold plan btw. I'm not really interested in how this will affect my loans.
Here are my figures.</p>

<p>Academic Competitiveness Grant...$750.00
Cal Grant A...........................$10,302.00
Federal Pell Grant (01)............. $3,100.00
UC Irvine Grant....................... $3,560.00 </p>

<h2>Total Gift Aid........................ $17,712.00 </h2>

<h2>Federal Work Study $1,500.00 </h2>

<p>My Parental Contribution is $2,451.00
My Student Contribution is $0.00</p>

<h2>My Expected Family Contribution is $2,451.00</h2>

<p>Estimated cost (living on campus)
Direct Costs (Fees and Health Insurance) $11,961.00
+ Books and Supplies $1,661.00
+ Living Expenses (Housing/Meals, Transportation, Personal) $14,443.00 </p>

<h2>Total UCI Cost: $28,065.00 </h2>

<p>Estimated Cost (living at home)
Direct Costs (Fees and Health Insurance) $11,961.00
+ Books and Supplies $1,661.00
+ Living Expenses (Housing/Meals, Transportation, Personal) $8,182.00</p>

<p>Total UCI Cost: $21,804.00 </p>

<p>There's a $6261 difference there. I don't understand how they calculate their aid awards. So any help would be great. If I decide to live on campus I need to register soon.</p>

2

<p>It’s hard to know what UCI will change because of the $6261 difference.</p>

<p>It’s odd that you don’t have any student loans in your package to fill in some of the gap (or am I overlooking that?)</p>

<p>Can you call the FA office and ask how the aid package would change if you decided to live at home?</p>

3

<p>Just call or email and ask them (anonymously :D) how they would adjust a package if it went to living at home. I think that since the COA is still more than your financial package plus your EFC that you may not see any changes to the grants</p>

4

<p>they offer enough loans to make up the difference between the aid offered and the estimated cost. I didn’t post the loans offered because I don’t care about how those might change. It will always just be enough to make up the difference.</p>

5

<p>My EFC is only $2451. I would still owe over $4000 if I live at home so I’m hoping they won’t change my grants. I’m guessing they try to only make us pay the EFC but their funding only goes so far.</p>

<p>It’s funny how they estimate the cost for students living at home.<br>
$4,356.00 for room and board. Uhh, my parents won’t make me pay rent! and the meal plan at UCI isn’t half that much. </p>

<p>$1,959.00 for transportation. Only $500 dollars more than for on campus students. Maybe if I buy an electric scooter… A car would be much more than that just to maintain and insure. Not considering the cost to buy it in the first place. I don’t expect the school to buy me a car but they could at least give a reasonable estimate to help students budget.</p>

6

<p>Call and ask. </p>

<p>If you can swing the cost of living on campus your first year, even with some loans, I’d encourage it – students who live on campus as freshman are more likely to graduate and have better grades, and it also is a real opportunity to meet people. If you can’t make that work, I hope you do figure out some other connections with UCI – just going to classes isn’t enough.</p>

7

<p>If you’re living at home, then your “school costs” are really…</p>

<p>Direct Costs (Fees and Health Insurance) $11,961.00

  • Books and Supplies $1,661.00 </p>

<p>About $14k</p>

<p>there’s no point in borrowing money to cover “rent” when you have no rent. IF they include the W/S, that can be used towards personal expenses.</p>

<p>Your EFC can go towards your more limited meal plan needs and transportation costs.</p>

<p>Right now, in addition to the $1500 W/S and your $2451 EFC to cover transportation and meals, you have nearly $18k in grants…to cover about $14k in real school costs. </p>

<p>So, I would guess that UCI might reduce your grants by about $3500.</p>

<p>You’d still come out ahead by living at home, because you’d have no loans.</p>

8

<p>I spoke with an advisor today and he said they will drop my UCI grant and lower my student loans. Apparently Pell grants and Cal grants aren’t affected by housing. </p>

<p>It will cost about $8,000 more to live on campus. But that’s before taking transportation and food into account. In the end, the experience of living on campus will probably win over the extra cost. I’ll be going into a lot of debt though…</p>

9

<p>Well, you can always do the campus experience for a year or two, then move home to borrow less and have less debt.</p>

<p>That sounds like a possible compromise.</p>

10

<p>Most UCI students move off campus after the 1st year, you could do the whole dorm bonding thing 1st year and then, when they move to Irvine apartments or to Newport houses, you could move home to save money</p>

11

<p>Thanks for the advice. I started this thread because the financial aid advisor wasn’t very helpful. She said she couldn’t tell me how much my aid would drop until may or june. That didn’t help me because I have to make my housing decision by May 1st…
I just called a couple more times until I talked to someone with a clue.</p>

<p>Everyone has encouraged me to live on campus for at least one year. I probably will because when else am I going to have an opportunity to have this kind of experience? My overnight stay later this month should give me a good idea of dorm life. I’ll make a final decision then.</p>