No one answers the Fin. Aid forum so help me out guys. ANOTHER fin. aid ?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
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<p>Okay so most of us are all transfer students. Not all of us are considered "independent" students in the eyes of FAFSA. I am considered independent. Filed my taxes, did my fafsa got an EFC of 5996. Then a new W-2 showed up on my door steps today showing I made 4500 bucks doing this summer research lab internship I did at UCSC. So now have to amend my taxes and redo my FAFSA. I know my EFC number is only going to go higher.</p>

<p>My first question is do universities realize that when an independent student transfer there is no way they are/will make the same money they did previously where they lived. I mean I live in Santa Cruz and applied to UCSC, UCD, and UCB. If I go to UCD or UCB then of course I wont have those sources of income anymore. Will this be factored in by the unis? If it isnt and they say hey bub you made X amount of money last year you dont qualify for fin aid. Can I contest it and bat my beautiful blue eyes for some more money?</p>

<p>Second question is do universities factor in TOTAL expenses when going to university including off campus living when they look at your EFC. Say my EFC goes to 8000 yet UCB says it cost approx 29k for all expenses, does that mean they think i need 21k in fin aid help? Or will they only say hey its 10k in tuition and fees so only need 2k.</p>

<p>Thanks for any help you send my way</p>

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<ul>
<li>At Berkeley you can do a budget appeal and sometimes get your budget adjusted. The additional funding will not be in the form of grants though, they will be in loans. </li>
</ul>

<p>-Whatever they decide your budget to be will have the EFC subtracted. So if your budget for the year is $29,000 & your EFC is $8000, then they will figure your budget to be $21,000 for the year. They will divide it in half and give you $10,500 for each semester. In this example after all the fees they apply it to, you figure about $5000 in fees & tuition it leaves you about $5,500 to live on per semester which is pretty tight of a budget considering the type of money you were used to making. It took a lot of adjustment for me since I was a tax auditor before transferring and used to making really good money. I ended up getting 3 part time jobs since it got too difficult living on just F/A & I needed jobs that could work around my class schedule.</p>