<p>I was just wondering how most of you intend to pay for housing while attending UC. Does the typical UC student pay straight out of pocket or is there ways to get financial assistance (aide/grant$/scholarship/etc.)? Do you pay the entire cost per quarter/semester/year up front?</p>
<p>Beginning Fall'10, I should be receiving the maximum Pell Grant and Cal Grants A & B (EFC=0; GPA=3.72). Also, I qualify for the Blue & Gold Plan, so any of my remaining tuition expenses or fees should be covered. So, it looks like, in terms of educational expenses, I'll be getting a free ride. However, so far it seems like I'm on my own with all the housing expenses. Is this typical? Anyone else out there in this same situation?</p>
<p>Im not 100 percent sure that your going to get a “free ride”. Im in the same situation as you, efc, gpa wise, and I believe we will have tuition expenses covered by Blue and Gold plan, but the rest of funds we receive i believe are in the form of grants and Loans.
Im not positive on this because I think their may be some grants that are offered to certain individuals.
I think in the end most of us will end up having to take out loans to cover the difference ( those of us paying out of our own pockets without the help of family)</p>
<p>Blue and Gold takes care of all the educational expenses that the Pell and Cal grants fall short of covering, right? So, shouldn’t the only left over expense be housing? I was only refering to “free ride” in the sense that all educational expenses would be covered. Although, I know that still having to pay another 9-12K a year for housing makes it far from a complete free ride.</p>
<p>^ your family/you (if you’re independent) makes very vey little money. and yes I have plenty of middle class friends that recieve no aid even though their middle class parents cannot afford to help them with college. It sucks but that’s the way it goes. </p>
<p>@ OP I was pretty much in the same boat as you and recieved about $17,000 in non-loan aid. So I wouldn’t expect to have a “free ride.” you will only recieve blue and gold if the aid you are offered will not cover tution costs…for example I qualified for blue and gold but do not recieve it.</p>
<p>Damn. So, you were still about $10K short of the estimated yearly cost of attending UC. How’d you make up the difference? Is that $17K in non-loan aid what got from filling out FAFSA and checking all those different scholarship boxes on the UC admission app?</p>
<p>@UCCasu
I think its great that you are looking at the cost of everything now. Thats something that I have asked so many people about since its important to know right? I mean…were going to be paying buku dollars! lol, More than community college at least.
Im not sure what exactly the blue and gold is going to do for us. From what I understand and It seems like you have a head start on this, I believe that our tuition costs are going to be absolutely covered. That is…we will not pay a dime out of our own pockets being that we have 0 EFC. But I still think its sensible, at this point, to wait until we receive the acceptance letters On may 1 to determine the true cost that we incur. That is, the cost that we pay for ( I.e. Loans)
I have a good friend that showed me his numbers that he was given after may first and he was able to determine the total cost in June.
Please inform me if you come across anything that allows you to determine financial costs to us because its something I am curious about it. The only variable is…How much is UC going to give us in grants? Will perhaps one UC give us more grants than another?
@ Laker4ever
Not BS, It may be hard to believe since its almost impossible to survive off an income of less than 13000 nowadays. But many students have this efc … thankfully we can receive help because of our little income and financial stability. Im sure you will have a good package too given that you have a 4.0 right?</p>
<p>@ UC casualty I had money saved to cover the rest of the cost which looks like it will be around $22k my first year at ucla. My estimated cost was around $27k but i found that I must be a little thriftier than the “average student.” I don’t think that’s entirely unusual though. I have a couple of friends who were around $21k for the year. Wish I could give you tips on how to cut down your cost of attendance but really I just found $22k was what I needed, not the $27k they estimated.</p>
<p>@ predicthisflick though you’re lower in priority than someone with an efc of 0 you could technically still be awarded say $16,000 because when added to your efc this would not exceed your estimated attendance cost. There are a lot of other factors that come into play to determine how much aid you will receive but such a scenario is possible for you.</p>
<p>Just get student loans for housing if you can’t afford it. Pay as much into the loan as you can per month with zero interest. You could probably even pay off your debt with the loans too. Less interest.</p>
<p>Since we are on this topic, if a person received Cal Grant A (that covers full tuition fees) and qualifies for the Blue and Gold, does this mean they will not get the Blue & Gold Grants?</p>
<p>It really depends on how much of a Cal grant A package you get. </p>
<p>I do know a few people where their EFC is high enough where you would choose not to receive the blue and gold grant and go instead with cal grants</p>
<p>I believe it’s one or the other don’t quote me on that though. I could be mistaken not entirely sure on this</p>
<p>^^ Yeah Blue and Gold only covers tuition, if your other grants amount enouph to cover your tuition, then no blue and gold for you (this was my case).</p>