FAFSA is an application from the US government.
It’s called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
The FAFSA application is just a form. FAFSA’s application information, is sent to your selected universities, with your information, like Pell Grant eligibility. The information that you completed on the form, is/was calculated to indicate that you were Pell grant eligible.
“Federal” indicates the whole country is included and it isn’t just special or specific to the UC’s. California kids fill out the FAFSA application to see if they qualify for federal funds everywhere. It pretty much happens in every state where students are asking for funding.
It doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not California accepts it from an out-of-state student. It’s Federal. If you qualify for a Pell grant through the US government, then the universities dispense the government’s $5500 for freshman year. So you would get $2750 per semester the first year.
The University of California won’t change their tuition and fees for out-of-state students. The UCs were created by the government of the State of California, for resident students so that local students would have an instate, affordable university to attend. They became phenomenally successful because of their selections of professors, staff and ambitious, hardworking students from within the State.
The way it’s funded is through the states’ taxpayers. If you’re from out of state, or from another country, you haven’t paid the states taxpayer fees, so you don’t get the reduced in-state fees. You pay out of state fees as a guest of the State of California’s universities. The UCs and California State Universities get thousands of applications from all over the world. The popular UCs get over 100,000 applications per year. It’s extremely competitive.
Your out-of-state fees are in the range of $80k to $90,000 a year, depending on the school and the location. If you’re “PELL grant eligible” for the year, subtract $5000 from those amounts.
Is your Father OK with paying $360,000 over four years for your education at a public college? It won’t be a private school.
These are large, public universities that are cities within themselves. Most of the UCs are on the quarter system. That means you have 10 weeks to prove yourself. These classes are extremely fast-paced. If you’re not used to the rapidity, it will be a challenge.
Remember that these universities are funded by the State, so there’s not a lot of money and some classes are extremely large. My daughter attended Davis and her calculus class had 500 students. The larger classes can be at Berkeley or UCLA.
You may be accepted, because California needs your money, but you need to know that a lot of students at the top UCs, have stronger stats and they drive the level and pace of grading and performance at these schools. They are used to the quarter system because the high schools in California are on similar systems.
Edited to add: I believe that the UC‘s and USC are out of your price range. Michigan I think is $90 K but I don’t remember. For a PoliSci degree, are you sure that your father is willing to pay these kinds of fees?