Based on the info posted on the UC web site, my Cincinnatus award is merit aid that would, in the past, have been $9000 ($6000 + $3000 for OOS). I say this based on what appears to be old info about Cincinnatus on UC’s engineering web site—there’s a link to it in an earlier post on this thread. As I said before, I am not ungrateful. But everyone has their own situation to deal with, and mine is that even with the $6000, UC is double my EFC, and that’s a problem. I am very fortunate to have received really nice merit aid/grant offers from some other schools (ranging from a $9000 portfolio scholarship to the flagship public university in my state to almost $30,000 from a private school out east). I go to school with a lot of kids who have far worse difficulties than mine, so I am really trying to keep things in perspective. Not attending my first choice school will not ruin my life.
Re the switch to semesters, here’s a link to info on UC’s web site:
http://www.uc.edu/conversion/