UC Berkeley Off Campus Housing Financial Aid

[ucbalumnus]

https://financialaid.berkeley.edu/cost-attendance-adjustment says:

@University of California

Cost of Attendance Adjustment

Your financial aid eligibility is based on a standard cost of attendance, or student budget. We may be able to increase your budget—and your financial aid eligibility—if you incur expenses during the academic year that are higher than your standard financial aid budget. This is called a Cost of Attendance (COA) Adjustment.

I.e. it looks like the standard budget is used, unless you can convince them on an individual basis that your actual expenses are higher (within reason; that web page lists maximums that may go up to). Also, “adjustments typically result in increases to loan or work-study eligibility.”