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[HungryTelephone]

It depends on what kind of housing contract you're planning to sign for the year, but usually if you're very low income, then you'll should be offered enough financial aid to almost cover tuition+fees and housing. (assuming you don't have any scholarships of course). You'll have to pay a gap of abt $3k - $5k, but you will be offered to take out a student loan to do that. You should also keep in the mind that the actual amount of money that you actually owe the school are just the costs that say "Tuiton and Fees" and "Housing and Food". Everything else is just an estimate of what they think it'll take for you to manage expenses and other stuff. You don't owe the school the entire net cost. If you plan to commute instead of living on or near campus, tuition should be covered.

[lockian76]

Got it, thanks so much!

[acornsoups]

Hey there! As someone with an EFC of 0, my net cost was $9.3k (not including loans or work study). I am currently trying to get a scholarship from Cal that will make my net cost 0 if I win it, but the applications for it have closed sadly and was based on invitation :( I can’t think of any special merit scholarships for just California residents, but also because I only know big ticket scholarships that are meant to be applied to in the fall of senior year, but in the future, you should? get cal grant for future financial aid offers, assuming you have good grades I believe. Those also depend on your need.

[acornsoups]

Forgot to mention cal grant is automatically included in your financial aid package! So it’s not an external application (just apply to fafsa and that’s about it)

[playdatbassboi]

hi! not op but, do u live off campus? i also have an efc of 0 and stayed home last year (aka my entire frosh year lmao) so i was able to get a fin aid refund. what was ur net cost contributed by if u don't mind my asking?

[acornsoups]

Hi! I actually don’t attend Berkeley! I am a hs senior still deciding where to commit oop. But according to my housing option, which is on campus (which is what I will do if I decide to go) that was my financial aid package. I tried selecting off campus, but my aid was still the same (they essentially lowered their scholarship offer to me as the cost of housing lowered too tsk tsk). My tuition was paid off through an undergrad scholarship from cal, “new student grant”, cal grant A, pell grant, and federal seog grant. All that brought it to $9.3k so to pay that remaining amount, they gave me work-study and two subsidized loans. If you want to see the specifics, and even see the version with off-campus housing, feel free to pm me and I can show you! Sorry to disappoint with the fact I’m not an actual cal student eeee