Hi all! I thought creating a thread in regards to questions about scholarships, grants, and loans could be helpful!
I’ll start off with my question about the Cal Grant . . .
So, I learned earlier this year that because I did not graduate from a CA High School I am not automatically given a Cal Grant, and because I fulfill the other requirements I will be put into a competitive area based on my stats. However, I won’t know until after the SIR date if I will get anything.
When I look into my UCSD financial aid package, there is a proposed Cal grant of 12,570. With a separate grant of a little under 8k. None of my other schools have this, and funny enough Davis is my primary school of choice on my Cal Grant login, so this seems a bit off.
UCD has given me a grant of 19.5k (no cal grant included). UCB has given me a transfer scholarship/grant of 23k (no cal grant included).
This leaves me wondering, If I don’t get a Cal Grant and decide to go to UCSD will I then be in to pay an extra 12k per year?
And if I do get a Cal Grant will it just lower the grants already given to me at Cal and Davis? Or will it reduce my loan fees?
Is anyone else in the same boat with a competitive Cal grant? Or does anyone know the likelihood of getting one?
Thanks!
a lot of the times, these grants that are usually just called UCD grant or Berkeley scholarship grant/scholarship, etc. are included with the Cal Grant. I can assure you UC Davis is not just giving you 19k in grants/scholarships without having a cal grant. You should know from the CSAC website if you qualified for the Cal Grant or not. If you do not qualify for the Cal Grant, no worries, as long as you’re household income is less than 80k, you still will qualify for blue and gold opportunity plan, which assures your system wide tuition and fees will be paid at any UC you attend.
Lastly, I just want to say this: most of the provisional aid is an estimate of your award based on the fact that you qualify for cal grant, etc. It is an estimate based on the income you put down. They then during the summer make your official award letter to see if you qualify for Cal Grant, and if you don’t, they will pay your tuition and fees through a variety of grants/scholarships, etc.
@futurebruin205 So essentially you are saying that UCB and UCD included a cal grant estimate into those big grants? Right now I am not eligible for the Cal Grant but they told me I will be in competition to get it later this summer. If I’m not awarded with anything then Blue and Gold will cover with the predicted grants?
Correct. and the blue and gold plan will use your Pell grant and other forms of university Grant’s and scholarship to pay the tuition and fees. So if you dont qualify for cal grant, and you are not awarded a regents scholarship, the Grant’s most likely will only cover your tuition and you wont get your Pell grant money for spending money since it will be used to pay the tuition and fees. There are some cases however, where if your EFC is very low they might reward you additional grant money to help you with housing expenses (all under the assumption you do not qualify for cal grant).