<p>Hey guys</p>
<p>I'm a noob when it comes to these stuff, and I have a few questions that hopefully you guys know the answers to.</p>
<p>I'm an incoming freshman at UCI. Cost of attendance is roughly 20k, my parents EFC is 26k. I didn't get any financial aid because they say my parents income are too high. Now lets say my parents income drop down to the financial aid level, but the EFC is still somehow higher than COA. Would I get financial aid or no?</p>
<p>I've been doing a few small local scholarships during my senior year (basically I've been lazy). Now that I have time, not a lot of local scholarships are available anymore. What are some good places to find scholarships? I signed up for scholarships.com, but they send me a lot of bad ones. Also, can you guys give me some "obvious basics" stuff that I need to know about scholarships. I've been reading through the forums and such, but there're so many general information which doesn't apply to me that it gets a bit overwhelming. </p>
<p>Thanks for your time!</p>
<p>If your EFC exceeds the cost of attendance, you have NO financial need, and would not receive need based aid, regardless of your income. </p>
<p>I believe even the Calgrant requirement is a certain income AND financial need.</p>
<p>There’s no such thing as a “financial aid level” of income at 99% of colleges – As thumper1 says, whether or not you are eligible for financial aid depends on your EFC, which factors in both income and assets, as well as some other factors (how many in college, etc.) </p>
<p>Scholarships – you are probably out of luck at this point. Check with your HS guidance office to see if there are any local scholarships that you can still apply for. Realistically, the scholarships from local agencies are the only ones anyone has a decent chance of winning. </p>
<p>Well my hs is no longer opened and the staff are taking a break so no more scholarships from them. But even so, most of the scholarships they recommended weren’t local. I only did the local ones because I thought I’d have more chance. So can I still apply for scholarships even after I enter college? My friend said there aren’t many scholarships once you’re in college.</p>
<p>Also, I heard applying for scholarships from the university you’re attending is also good. But it seems like UC Irvine only offers need based scholarships, and a few scholarships where they select you based on academics and such. I haven’t received any offers. So am I really out of luck? </p>
<p>It does look like you’re out of luck if your academics weren’t good enough for merit. Your next chance will be some potential (small) academic scholarships next year, usually awarded by department.</p>
<p>If your EFC is $26,000, and the COA for Irvine is $20,000…can your parents pay something towards your education? You ARE eligible for a Direct Loan of $5500, leaving $14,500 as the balance.</p>
<p>As a basic rule, your FAFSA EFC is the minimum you can expect to pay before getting any finanical aid. Some exceptions to this but, in general, that number is what you have to pay out of pocket before you get penny one of federal, a lot of state, most college finanical aid monies. Now you can get merit money to bring down what you have to pay, but any fin aid will generally be integrated with that. </p>
<p>It appears that the COA is for a commuting student since tuition and fees is below the the $14K level for UCs and nearly $30K for instaters who board there. So you must be a commuter. There is often wiggle room between COA and actual expenses. You will need to come up with $7K each term to pay UC directly for tuition and fees, and you can borrow up to $2750 a term from your freshman year $5500 Direct Loans entitlement to bring that figure down. Look for a job this summer to pay some of the balance, and see what your parents can chip in for commuting costs and books. Bag your lunches and snacks at home and bring them, cutting down on eating out costs. </p>
<p>You can play around with the EFC estimators to see what your family income and asset comb need to be to qualify for financial aid. I have no idea how the California state grants work–you might want to talk to a financial aid counselor at the college and find out what levels are needed to qualify. But for federal aid, you would have to drop down awfully low to get the PELL entitlement. You are likely to just get subsidization of the Direct Loan first in terms of financial aid even if you get your family income levels down to where you just qualify for need. Getting actual grant money is not so easy. </p>
<p>Whenever EFC is higher that COA you get no aid. Looks like you are not even close to Pell Grant. You don’t qualify for a Calgrant either if your EFC is equal or higher than your COA. You will be billed 7,300 for each semester. Plus they estimate books at 900 each semester so try to save on that. The other costs that make up the 20k are transportation, personal, and something to give your parents for food/rent, nothing to be given directly to the school, right? Buy or rent your textbooks, and yes take your lunch most days, and a bottle of water or something in your backpack. </p>
<p>Once your package is set for freshman year from UC that is it. You can get a job each summer to contribute. Depending on your major your may be able to get one that pays more later. You can work pt mayb 12 to 15 hours a week in school. College jobs go to work/study kids first, but you can get hired for anything unfilled, or maybe something local to your home, but college jobs may tend to be more flexible.</p>
<p>Most scholarships are for incoming freshman and like you found, it is late. Keep looking and applying. You can keep looking in future years too. Look at your department for scholarships. Some departments may have paid research available which helps you with money and to build a CV, sometimes you have to get to know the professors for that so take an interest in what your profs are doing and maybe you can get involved.</p>
<p><<<
I’m an incoming freshman at UCI. Cost of attendance is roughly 20k, my parents EFC is 26k. I didn’t get any financial aid because they say my parents income are too high.
<<<</p>
<p>.the coa is higher, but i see this…</p>
<p><<<
UCI
- live at home, save $
- good engineering program
- convenient for my parents, they want me to go there
<<<<</p>
<p>your parents need you to live at home to save about 12k per year. that makes sense if they got no aid and it is hard for them to pay.</p>
<p><<<<
Now lets say my parents income drop down to the financial aid level, but the EFC is still somehow higher than COA
<<<<</p>
<p>this makes no sense at a FAFSA only school. </p>
<p>are you talking about that middle class program that some/all UCs offer? what is your parents income?</p>
<p>income’s roughly about 90k, I think I qualify for middle class scholarship, but I haven’t heard from them. reason why income could drop and EFC is still the higher is because we have 2 houses, so I don’t know if that adds to EFC, but we’re probably selling one. Income could potentially drop down to 70k-80k, which I think is in the range to receive grant, though I doubt it’ll be much. Yeah they can pay for a portion, but because they’re supporting 5 people but for FAFSA I put 3 (the other 2 are considered adults), so i’m trying to cut down to maybe 10k/ year. 20k is a bit too steep, and it could be higher.</p>
<p>So seems like aid is out of the question for this year, maybe all 4 years except Middle class scholarship, which I still haven’t heard from them.</p>
<p>How about scholarships? From what I’ve seen there aren’t alot of summer scholarships, but is it like that for you guys as well? And once i’m already attending UCI, the only likely scholarships are from departments? It sucks that I was pretty close to being qualified for the merit scholarships at UCI. </p>
<p>If your family has two houses, the primary residence is not included on FAFSA, so that can be free and clear, but the net market value of the second home is, so mortgage against it, would reduce its value greats. </p>
<p>The middle class scholarship is for families with income less than $150,000. It is being phased in starting this year. The maximum for this year will be $1707 (subject to state funding).</p>
<p>Hmm that’s quite disappointing. I was hoping that at least i’d get maybe 30% of tuition, which is at least 3000$. </p>
<p>So just out of curiosity how much did you guys get from scholarships when you guys were HS seniors. Most of my friends including valedictorian only got at most a few grands, and it seems like really hard, kind of like lottery. Just wondering what’s a realistic range that an average person gets.</p>
<p>The Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan pays 100% of your tuition and fees if your income is below $80000. So maybe next year…</p>