<p>How much does Berkeley hand out in financial aid? Their site doesn’t say much (at all). Do people pay most of the 20,000 something dollars a year or is there some kind of (non-loan) assistances from the school? My family’s income is a little under 50,000 and can’t really shell out twenty grand a year…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.csac.ca.gov/facts/2008-09Income&AssetCeilingTables.pdf[/url]”>http://www.csac.ca.gov/facts/2008-09Income&AssetCeilingTables.pdf</a></p>
<p>With that income, you’re eligible for Cal Grant A, which is worth more than $6.5K.</p>
<p>Hey… Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>not enough financial aid</p>
<p>Because Berkeley’s been accepting more and more students (I think the school is over 35k now), it has to spread its financial aid thinner, especially since nearly a third of its undergraduates (~8,000 students) are Pell Grantees, meaning they are low-income students. So, for example, the base loan in the UC financial aid is $4,160, but Berkeley will give much more in loans, even for low-income students. On the whole, Berkeley’s financial aid is great–better than probably any public, and competitive with top privates–but it can’t quite match many privates’ financial aid.</p>
<p>Stanford, for example, has eliminated tuition for families making up to $100k; that means that a family making that would have to pay only $15,000, whereas at Berkeley, financial aid stops at $100k, so the family would have to pay $25,000. Rarely is a private school (where the annual cost of attendance is over $50k) actually cheaper than a state school.</p>
<p>With the initiatives of HYPS (eliminating loans, giving more grants, etc.), Berkeley–along with other colleges–needs to step up to the plate and increase its own financial aid. But with the recent budget cuts and a hard-headed legislature, that’s going to be a difficult task.</p>
<p>You would not be asked to shell out the full price for Berkeley. You’d probably get good financial aid.</p>