<p>you need to do everything through FAFSA and enter CSULB school code so they receive your information. just on income doesn’t mean much as family size is taken into account and various other factors (assets, investments, mortgage, etc etc)</p>
<p>a key factor in this is EFC (expected family contribution) this is the amount your parents hsould be able to shsell out to you in terms of $$ per year that you’re attending CSULB (or any other school for that matter)</p>
<p>lets say you hvae a EFC of 0
Then you’ll receive full pell grant (around 5500$)
then maybe you got a cal grant also (x-dollars 1500 - 4500(?))
and then to finish it up you qualify for a State university grant (1200$)</p>
<p>so everything minus the cost of attendance (~22k / year for instate tuition of course)
is the leftover.</p>
<p>stafford loans are capped at around 5500$ i believe (you should go this route first as they are low interest and gov’t backed to my knowledge and you get a 9 month? grace period after dropping school / graduating)</p>
<p>But generally speaking, CSU’s will be a lower cost than UC’s.
My sisters all went through UC’s and they usually averaged 5k in loans / year.
(This was after exhausting work-study / working part time)</p>
<p>My friend who got his aid package from CSULB will have everything exhausted and if he WANTS TO (key point is WANTS TO) he can take out 6.2k in loans / year to cover everything.</p>
<p>By no means necessary do you have to take out that loan, you may feel better taking out 3k and to cover the extra 3k you can pick up a part time job to fulfill that requirement. </p>
<p>Just remember that COA (cost of attendance is a broad figure, it can vary wildly if you factor in vacations, flights, unexpected costs, or even be a lot lower if you are on a budget mindset)</p>
<p>^hope im not putting college students to shame with this horrible grammar and spelling but its 3:04 am and im up posting! .__.</p>
<p>EDIT: note that my sisters only took out 5k / year because our EFC was 700 almost everytime. family size was either 4/3 dependents , depending on the year, and an annual income of ~35k/year.</p>