Has come to my attention that I never actually sent my actual full college list! (whoops.) Here’s where I actually ended up applying to in case anyone’s curious:
USC Early Action
UC Berkeley
Grand Canyon (offered a “great scholarship” but after looking a bit into it, seems like a sketch school + where deceptive about how much my “scholarship” would actually cover aka loooot of loans.)
University of Pacific. Auto admit through commonapp and got a cute scholarship. That being said Berkeley is significantly cheaper and a better fit for me.)
UC Irvine
UCSD
UCLA
UC Davis
UC Riverside (forgot to mention I was admitted here for B.S + M.S meche program!!)
UC Santa Barbra (You can tell I had just gotten paid when I was checking off the boxes for UC application )
SDSU
SJSU
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Cal State Long Beach
MIT (Am I the greatest fit? No. But y’know it’s still an awesome school and I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t apply.)
I worry when you say things like this. A full ride doesn’t have loans - which have fees (so you get less than you borrow), interest, and of course have to be paid back.
A full ride means - it’s free.
$20K a year is $80K in loans - so that is not worth it - period, end of story, in my opinion.
If it’s this, it seems it’s at every UC and will be done through grants, not loans - unless I’m missing somethng.
I agree, and I got an aid offer of only $5,000 in loans a year ($20k) at Berkeley which is much more reasonable to me. Because of the aid, UC Davis is honestly not a school I will be pursuing.
If you opt to borrow above the Federal Student loan limits you will need to use a private lender but will be able to avoid a cosignor. Below are some examples of these sorts of lenders and programs.
In fact the owners of CC are in this business (blocked their name).
I am not recommending you take on this sort of debt as it tends to have higher interest rates then co-signed or Federal but it is an available option and in some cases makes sense.
Currently through the Federal program a college undergraduate can only borrow borrow up to $5,500 as a freshman, $6,500 as a sophomore, and $7,500 as a junior and senior, totaling $27,000), beyond that you will need to borrow privately.
@Gumbymom can you talk about the blue and gold scholarship - where the student says they are being offered $20K in loans (not grants). It doesn’t read that way to me but perhaps you understand what the student is saying or how they are getting to this #.
Blue and Gold Opportunity does not list loans as part of the FA package only grants from Federal, State, UC and private source funding. Federal student loans and Parent plus loans could be part of the overall FA package.
Not sure where the $20K in loans is coming from. It might be better if @SuperSecretNerd posted a screenshot of the actual FA package to help us better understand the breakdown.
OK they are listing $11871 in loans and $6000 in self help either through work study, savings or help from your family.
The Blue and Gold just guarantees that your tuition and fees will be covered using Federal, State, UC and Private grants and if you have more need, then more grants can be awarded. You are receiving the Cal Grant, Federal Pell, UCD Aggie Scholarship, University Grant and Campus Fee grant to help cover your calculated needs. They are also offering you a grant for the required UC Healthcare (UCSHIP). This is a good financial package but not considered a Full ride since you are will need to take out loans, do work study or contribute from work/savings or family.
Congratulations on all your acceptances but you should compare the package with the other UC’s financial aid packages.
In general the FA packages at the UC’s are similar but in OP’s case UC Berkeley appears to be lower and there is the possibility of additional scholarship money with the SEEDS scholars program.
But also note that the CoA includes an allocation for personal expenses along with transportation and books which are typically a substantial overestimate, especially for instate students. And the housing cost is also more than $3000 too high for a student living in a triple dorm (no idea of the mix of rooms at UCD but this is extremely common at UCs).
It should be easy to cut $6000-$8000 off the supposed $17,871 net outlay.
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