<p>So I ended up choosing the school that offered me the most aid, which was Berkeley far and away. My brother chose UCSD, even though he only had about $4k in grants. </p>
<p>On July 27 they "updated" his aid so now he has $22k, even more than me. If I had known this could happen (and I'm assuming here), I would have picked UCLA because it was the school I wanted to go to initially. I'm not sure if UCLA does this or what the deal is.</p>
<p>Anyone know anything about this?? Why do they give you grant estimates when they're not even accurate? How is one to make a good choice if these aren't even reliable estimates?? And has this happened to anyone else?</p>
<p>Berkeley and UCLA are both fine schools.</p>
<p>Is this the Calgrant you are talking about?</p>
<p>No. He went to UCSD and they updated his aid package to include a UCSD “in-aid” grant of over $18k! Not calgrant! </p>
<p>I know they’re both great schools, but I do have a preference (if money is equal). So I’m miffed that I might have actually gotten aid at UCLA!</p>
<p>Your brother did NOT get this grant at UCLA. He got it at UCSD. The two schools are very different in terms of how they award financial aid. There is absolutely no guarantee that your aid at UCLA would have increased like your brother’s did at UCSD.</p>
<p>It sounds like you got decent aid at Berkeley. I think you need to start looking forward to going there…instead of wishing for UCLA…which apparently did not work out financially.</p>
<p>I am still excited about Berkeley, but I guess my main question was (1) why does UCSD do this “updated” package? What’s the deal with that? and (2) does anyone know if UCLA does this kind of “updated” aid package too? </p>
<p>I know we can’t equate them, but I’m just curious.</p>
<p>Maybe your brother was on the cusp of qualifying for a merit grant award…and when the final acceptances were tallied, there was money left to award him the money (because others chose to NOT attend UCSD and take the awards).</p>