Cal Grant A..?

[IrishBells86]

Alright.. I'm completely confused.
In April I found out that I got enough in grants to cover tuition at my local UC (sweet!). About a month later I get the Cal Grant A and B application in the mail and sent it in. The other day I checked online and found out that I got the max amount ($6636) awarded to me, and called financial aid at the school I'll be attending in the fall. She said something about the Cal grant replacing the money I got in other grants, so I wouldn't be getting $6636 *more*... only about 200.
Sounded strange to me, but I thanked her and hung up. After looking anywhere I could find info about this grant, nothing says *anything* about that. Anybody have this happen to them? I'd really appreciate any help!

 

[sisq0kidd]

Cal Grant A is a California grant that relies on your GPA and your overall financial need.

They won't give you $6636 on top of your aid already because that's not the point of financial aid. The point of it is to make sure you have enough money to make it through college. Just like how loans and scholarships adjust your overall need.

 

[WildHorse]

IrishBells86,

Congratulations to you on winning a nice grant like that.

I suppose it was a competitive situation to get a grant, and that it required a big application effort.

Congratulations!

Where do you plan to enroll?
What field of study do you tentatively contemplate?

 

[IrishBells86]

Sisq0kidd: Thanks so much, that makes a lot of sense now.
Scott: Thank you! It's really just as sisq0kidd said, based on financial need and GPA, and didn't require "a big application effort"... the FAFSA really helped. I'm enrolled in UCSC and will be studying music and art (photography). Should be fun!

 

[sisq0kidd]

Just some more advice as I recently graduated from Irvine a few years ago and had to deal with financial aid quite a bit.

If you have the California Governer's (STAR testing, I believe) scholarship, do not use it in conjunction or withdraw it during your regular quarters. It takes away from your other grants, loans or scholarships. You can use this scholarship when you like so don't bother taking money out when grants take care of that already. I left my scholarship money in the account as it accrued pretty good interest, but took it out my second year (went to a community college my second year) when I needed more money.

I'm not sure if they still give $1000 scholarships each year for outstanding achievement in STAR testing, but they did when I was in highschool (graduated 2001).

Good luck with school! I'm very, very glad that you are studying something you feel is fun and actually want to do. It will save you years of confusion and frustration. I majored in ICS my first year in Irvine, then Economics and finally settled with a Social Science degree. Not exactly the route I wanted to take, which makes me regret that I didn't just do what I wanted to do (accounting), which wasn't even offered at Irvine.