Calculating Your Financial Aid

For an official site of information and resources visit bigfuture.collegeboard.org

Expected Family Contribution (EFC) - Your EFC Score is the number that will be the main thing in determining what Federal or State Aid you qualify for and how much you will receive. Your actual EFC will be calculated when you fill out the FAFSA your Senior Year.

You can began calculating and seeing how much eligible you qualify for by:

STEP 1 Using the EFC Calculator from CollegeBoard (click here)

STEP 2 Reference the EFC Chart Below to determine your Federal Pell Grant.

pell_chart_2022_2023.pdf

STEP 3 If you plan on attending ANY school in California, then you will likely qualify for the Cal Grant. As long as your household makes less than the given number you will qualify. You can only receive one of the following at a time:

Cal Grant A (3.0 GPA or higher)
CSU - $5, 742 per year
UC - $13,104 per year
Private Non-Profit - $9,084
Private For-Profit - $4,000 - $8,056
Cal Grant B (2.0 GPA or higher)
$1,648 for the first year, if you stay in school and reapply you will receive the amounts above from Cal Grant A.
Cal Grant C (No GPA Requirement/Community College only)
$1,094

Add up your Financial Aid:

PELL GRANT (step 2)
CAL GRANT (if staying in CA, step 3)
Add up SCHOLARSHIPS
= ?
The above total is how much "free" money you will receive which you will need to compare to your schools cost of attendance.
Determine if and how much in Federal Loans you need to borrow (loans are the only money that you will eventually have to pay back.)