UCI Gift Aid

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I was accepted to UCI as an undergraduate transfer student for this upcoming Fall 2012. At the time when I submitted my FAFSA, I logged onto MyAid on the UCI website and discovered that UCI had offered me $18,000 (it's called the Gift Aid - it doesn't have to be paid back or earned; it's based off my FAFSA). My net cost was then $12,000, which was a pretty great deal. I accepted the aid and then logged out. A month later, after they updated my financial aid info after I submitted the 2011 tax returns, I checked MyAid and they basically took the gift aid away. They are now offering me $1,874 in the gift aid, when previously they had offered me $18K. I was extremely disappointed since I had chosen UCI primarily because they were giving me more money.:/</p>

<p>Anyone have any ideas why or how this happened?</p>

<p>I have plenty of ideas…</p>

<p>1) your original FASFA submittal contained inaccurate info, so the aid was based on inaccurage info.</p>

<p>2) After you updated your financial aid, the school realized that you no longer qualified for the Blue and Gold promise, so that aid was removed. If family income exceeds $80k, then you won’t qualify for B&G. </p>

<p>3) Your EFC is now too high</p>

<p>4) You didn’t graduate from a Calif high school…or you didn’t attend one for 3 years.</p>

<p>What is your EFC after you updated your FAFSA? </p>

<p>What was your family’s actual income for 2011?</p>

<p>Did you graduate from a Calif high school?</p>

<p>Hmmm, </p>

<p>1) I don’t think there was any inaccurate information on my FAFSA.
2) I was never eligible for the Blue & Gold Opportunity Plan
3) It might be a possibility that my EFC was too high
4) I did graduate from a California high school.</p>

<p>It didn’t show my EFC after they updated MyAid.
Actually, there is one thing though…I submitted my high school transcript before the deadline but they placed an Admissions hold on my account because my transcript didn’t have my graduation date on it. So I’m going to get another official transcript from my high school with the graduation date on there and send it to UCI. Do you think that might be the reason they’re not giving me any financial aid??</p>

<p>You said that you were given a great aid pkg, AND THEN you submitted 2011 tax forms, and then most of your aid was taken away. If your aid was taken away after they reviewed your tax forms, then there was likely something on those forms that was different from what was on your FAFSA. </p>

<p>If you weren’t ever eligible for Blue and Gold, then it’s unlikely that you were eligible for that much free aid. </p>

<p>WHAT is your EFC at the time you were awarded the $18k in grants? And, what was your EFC after they reduced your grants?</p>

<p>It is possible that they’ve removed the grants because your Grad date wasn’t there. I think that B&G and Cal Grants require that you have to have graduated after a certain date.</p>

<p>There are many people who don’t qualify for Blue and Gold getting lots of gift aid at UCI. How do you know if you’ll get this. I know someone who was surprised this year to get $10.000.00. They definitely make over 80K. Does anyone know what this is based on?</p>

<p>^^^</p>

<p>There aren’t many instate students who don’t qualify for B&G get much “need-based aid” that get that much “free money”. However, the person you know may have gotten “free money” because: 1) the money was a MERIT award (maybe Regents, Alumni, or something else). or… 2) The family’s income was too high for B&G (under $80k), BUT, they have 2 or more students in college, so their EFCs qualified for aid. A family earning $100k with 3 in college, may have EFCs of $8k each.</p>

<p>How much was your EFC?</p>

<p>My EFC is 7,135 and I am an out of state student. I know I do not qualify for the blue and gold, but how much could I expect to receive from the UCI grant? Or are they the same thing?</p>