<p>After asking several of my friends from 5 different UCs whose CAL Grant has expired, UC Grant replaces CAL Grant, but the max UC Grant seems to be $15,300 for this school year. This is all speculation though, so I don’t have all of the facts. All 13 of us (from 5 different UCs) got a UC Grant of $15,300 and all of our CAL Grants expired. Also looking back, all of our FA packages had CAL Grant + UC Grant < $15,300 in the previous years.</p>
<p>All of our EFCs are 0-200 and we received $5,550-EFC Pell Grant.</p>
<p>I also noticed that those who lived on campus in the resident halls had PLUS Loans while those that lived off campus were not offered PLUS Loans.</p>
<p>I’m guessing this means FAOs expect 2nd-nth year students to live off campus and if they choose to live on campus then their parents would have to shoulder the PLUS Loans.</p>
<p>According to Project on Student Debt, the UCs “attempt to” meet full need via Pell Grant, CAL Grant, UC Grant after the student has taken out </p>
<p>$5,500 subsidized loans
$2,000 unsubsidized loans
$2,000 Work Study
$3,500 Self-Help <---- not sure about this
$X EFC</p>
<p>I don’t see a Self-Help on my FA package this year or previous years though (maybe mistake?).</p>
<p>What this could mean is that for any student whose CAL Grant is gone but has 0 EFC, the UCs “attempt” to meet full need with extra UC Grant as long as the student takes out the $7,500 loans, do WS, and Self-Help Summer job contribution. They also expect students to live off campus after 1st year when calculating the FA packages.</p>
<p>EDIT: Actually I just received an email from my FAO, and they said my analysis was correct (even the off campus vs. on campus part). I typed up a similar analysis in the email I sent yesterday.</p>
<p>I also forgot to mention that even though Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan doesn’t extend for 5th-nth years, what I wrote was still true (based on what I received in the email and they said they still “attempt” to meet full need for 5th-nth year students where Blue and Gold does not apply).</p>