based on my FAFSA i will not receive any financial aid. to afford UCB, i will need to receive free tuition all 4 years ($16k/year). i am in-state. i have sent multiple emails to various offices in UCB about departmental scholarships but received no responses. what are the chances of me being able to appeal for aid for cal and what would be the best way to go about it? i did not receive any merit-based scholarships. i don’t really understand how they choose who receives them. any advice is appreciated!
Are you saying you are not income-eligible for Cal Grants or the Middle Class Scholarship? If you are over-income, you likely will not receive any need-based aid. Cal offers very few merit scholarships and most do not cover full cost of attendance (Regents scholarship meets need, but is not necessarily a full ride - it is based on FAFSA’s determination of family contribution based on income). Other merit-based scholarships are maybe a few thousand dollars - which helps, but will not cover your full costs.
Please do double check Cal grants and Middle Class scholarship, though - many who don’t think they will qualify actually do. If your income is over the limit for these, then it will be expected for your family to be able to pay.
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Is that based on the FAFSA estimator?
Merit based scholarships at the UCs are extremely rare and competitive. I would set that question aside and focus on financial aid.
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Much of the need based aid for UCB is awarded via a Calgrant. If you were not eligible, I doubt there is much you can do. Getting free tuition when you don’t have sufficient financial need is not likely.
What can you do? Start at a community college at a lower cost and transfer to complete your degree.
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I am not aware that the full financial aid packages are available yet but if this is your actual FA package, then you can file an appeal. UCB does not negotiate.
Did you run the Net price calculator?
i checked and i am over the income limit for both but my family cannot pay for the full cost of attendance, even in-state
yes i ran the net price calculator for all the schools i applied to including cal and i will not receive aid. i don’t think my aid package came out yet but for all other schools i got my aid package back for i did not qualify for aid
based on my FAFSA SAI and student aid calculator for UCB
You might look at the first two links on their appeal website
Appeals & Special Circumstances - Financial Aid & Scholarships (berkeley.edu)
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Then…what can you pay? Is there a community college near your home where you could afford the tuition…and live at home?
A special circumstance would mean you have something new in your family financial picture since you filed your applications. Not being able to pay is not a special circumstance
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If there are special circumstances, then you can file an appeal. But generally if your family has sufficient income to pay, then they will expect you to pay. If there was recent job loss or something similar then that can go into your appeal.
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If you do not qualify for need based aid, then you should have expected to pay close to full fees minus student federal loans. Not sure why expect to receive full tuition.
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If the NPC said no aid…what do you expect?
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Merit scholarships in general are offered to the high end of admits, meaning those whom the school most wants to enroll and are most likely to have other options or similarly or more selective schools to choose from.
Then…why would you think Cal would give you free tuition. Please explain.
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And as has been mentioned by several posters…Most of Cal’s need-based aid actually comes through the California Student Aid Commission, which funds the Cal grant and middle class scholarship programs. If you don’t qualify for those programs, then there is not a whole lot that Cal will be able to do. You can apply for merit scholarships (try the alumni scholarships), but they won’t get you to full tuition. Who do you think should pay for your education and why?
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Here is the selection process for the Regents/Chancellor scholarship which has an honorarium of $2500/year. If you have no financial need as determined by the FAFSA and UCB’s financial aid office, then the $2500 Honorarium is all that you would receive.
Candidates are selected from the top applicants to UC Berkeley through a holistic review process determined by the Academic Senate Committee on Undergraduate Scholarships, Honors, and Financial Aid.
Faculty interviews and scholarship consideration for first-year candidates takes place in early March.
Notifications of scholarship awarding decisions are sent to first-year candidates at the end of March.
Here are the alumni scholarships, although I am not sure if the deadlines have passed this year. My daughter was able to get a leadership award last year for $2500, so again, this won’t get you to full tuition, even you are fortunate enough to receive one.
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UC Berkeley is a public university funded by the taxpayers of the State of California.
Your parents pay taxes that go towards Berkeley and the other UCs. It’s not a private institution that receives beaucoup bucks for tuition and fees. It’s a public university and the funding from the state goes to facilities, labor, insurance, and liability.
If you don’t qualify for a Cal Grant or the Middle Class scholarship, then your parents were supposed to have saved money for your college expenses. The Cal grant as well as the Middle Class Scholarship are run by the State of California and not Berkeley. Berkeley‘s hands are tied because they are not the ones that provide loans, nor provide scholarships other than the few limited ones that may be sponsored by alumni.
But I think what you need to understand is that every single student, accepted to Berkeley would receive merit, if the school had the money. But it’s a public university so it relies on families (who pay out-of-state tuition) donations, and State taxes. They can’t count on those dollars continually, so merit scholarships are about $2500, which are drop in the bucket for what you need.
You can’t expect the school to cover your expenses just because you’re a good student. Where did you get the notion that you’re supposed to get a free ride just because you got admitted to Berkeley? Your parents were supposed to do that.
So, you can’t get angry at Berkeley FA.
Their hands are tied. They don’t have money to give to you because their funding comes from Sacramento.
There should not have been any surprises if you ran the NPC and knew you weren’t receiving aid.
Go to a community college. Work part time and save some money. Ask your parents to save money in a 529 account then resubmit your application.
That’s not the complete fault of the student because the student doesn’t know the family’s finances, nor costs, the parents control those.
Remember Berkeley is a California public university funded by the taxpayers of the State. Funding for the universities comes from the state budget which is always very tight. Begin at a community college, save your money, and have your parents save money too and then see if you can afford to pay for Berkeley in two years.
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If your parents cannot help you, but you don’t qualify for fin aid, this is what you can do.
You start at the community college near you, that has a transfer agreement with a UC near you. You do all the CLEP you can that they will take (modernstates.org) to get free credits. You start community college this summer, taking a heavy load summer, fall, spring, summer, to get your associate’s in a year, then you transfer to the UC to start in fall '25 as a junior. You borrow 5500 for this summer, and the max federal loan for '24-/25, 25-26, 26-27. You also work a part time job. You live at home. You can be done in 3 yrs, 4 at most, and graduate with a little over 20K in federal loans.
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