ESS 606: Financial Aid FAQs

Laura Vogt:
Hi, and welcome to the not so secret guide to being a Berkeley engineer. My name is Laura Vogt. I’m the Associate Director for Marketing and Communications for the College of Engineering. And I’m your podcast host. So this week we have Joseph Sell, the Assistant Director for Financial Aid and Scholarships office. Hi, Joe. Welcome to the podcast.

Joe Sell:
Hey Laura. Thanks so much for having me today.

Laura Vogt:
So let’s have you introduce yourself a little bit more and tell us about your role at UC Berkeley.

Joe Sell:

Absolutely. So again, my name is Joe Sell. I use he/him pronouns. I’m an Assistant Director here in the Financial Aid and Scholarships office. I’m in our counseling unit. I’ve worked at Berkeley for about seven years now in the Financial Aid office. Yeah, I help students with advising, with counseling. We work through processing student documents, basically anything and everything that touches on financial aid is under our umbrella. And so, yeah, just happy to be here and yeah, happy to help with financial aid.

Laura Vogt:
So let’s talk about the first thing that I think people might have a question about is, what determines a student’s financial aid eligibility?

Joe Sell:
So the first step, when a student applies for financial aid is completing a financial aid application. So depending on whether the student is a US citizen, a permanent resident, eligible non-citizen, or otherwise will determine as to which application they should file. So if a student is a US citizen, a permanent resident or other eligible non-citizen such as like an asylum student or students who’ve been [inaudible 00:01:28] into the United States, they would file a FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. And that’s located at fafsa.gov. Students that don’t meet those eligibility criteria for citizenship, perhaps undocumented students that meet the AB 540 requirements for the nonresident tuition waiver can instead file what’s called a California Dream Act Application.

Joe Sell:
And that can be found, the website is dream.csac, C-S-A-C, .ca.gov. So students will need to complete one of these two applications and in order to be considered for financial aid, I would say if a student is not sure which application to apply for, they can start with the California Dream Act Application that will ask them just some general questions to determine if that’s the application for them, or if they should instead file a FAFSA.

Joe Sell:
So the students can start with either one, but once we have their correct application on file, that application is going to collect general information about the students and perhaps their families financial information. It’ll ask questions about the number of their households. So maybe how many siblings they have or how many siblings are in college. It asks a variety of different questions. And based on all of that information, the FAFSA or the California Dream Act Application will output what’s called an EFC or an expected family contribution. Essentially that number is what we use for determining how much and what kinds of financial aid a student can receive. So in general, the first step is completing the application and all of those questions and all that information gathered through either the FAFSA or the California Dream Act Application is what we’re going to use to determine a student’s financial aid eligibility.

Laura Vogt:
And it’s the same process or procedure for first year students and transfer students, correct?

Joe Sell:
That’s exactly right. Yeah. First year students, transfer students and continuing students as well. So students are required to file their application each year. So starting, for example, for this year, we are in the year for the 22-23 FAFSA or Dream Act Application. And that will cover the fall 22, spring 23 and the summer 2023 terms for financial aid. At that point, students would then file a new application the 23-24, for the year after that.

Laura Vogt:
And are there dates that students need to be aware of when it comes to filling out the applications?

Joe Sell:
Yeah. So there are priority deadlines, priority deadlines for the application. So generally that is March 2nd. So students are encouraged to apply or submit their application by that date, at least to make sure they’re eligible for all the different types of aid they could receive. So some programs such as specifically the Cal Grant require that students have their application on file by that deadline in order to qualify for financial aid. So really it’s just important that students try to make sure their application is in by that March 2nd deadline. Students can still apply after that deadline. So they certainly can still submit an application after that. Just they may not be considered for certain awards, kind of like the Cal Grant, but we can still use that information for rewarding federal aid such as a Pell grant or student loans, as well as university grants and scholarships.

Laura Vogt:
And so for the coming up year, how do students know what is part of their package? How is it broken down for them?

Joe Sell:
Yeah, so there’s a couple different resources. So for summer, actually specifically, if a student is a current student and they’re enrolled for… Actually, they don’t have to be enrolled in the summer. If a student’s a current student, they can go into their CalCentral account. If they click on the my finances tab on the far right side at the bottom of the screen, there’s a link that says summer cost and aid estimator. A student can click on that link. They’ll input, just information about what they want to study. So they might put in, I’m planning to take six units in summer session C for example, and it’ll output an estimate of an award package for the student. So that’s one tool they can use that will also help estimate the cost of certain Berkeley summer abroad programs, as well as certain programs like summer bridge or freshman or transfer edge as well.

Joe Sell:
During the academic year, there’s a tool called a calculator that students can look up. That will actually have them input on their financial aid, sorry, their financial aid application information. So the similar same information input on the FAFSA or the Dream Act. And that will actually output an estimate as well to say, this is what we project your EFC will be. And this is what we also project your award package will be. Now that’s of course, just projections and estimates. Once we have the actual financial aid application on file, as long as everything is complete, such as any verification requirements or anything like that, we will then go ahead and post the actual award package to CalCentral at that time.

Laura Vogt:
And is there an option available for students whose financial aid circumstances have changed since they were accepted to Berkeley and got that initial package?

Joe Sell:
There certainly is. So, one thing we recognize definitely is that the financial aid applications are using income information from two years prior. So for example, this 22-23 application is going to ask for the student and the families financial information from 2020. Now that was two, four years ago. And a lot of things could have changed between then and now. And so what we do offer is what’s called a family contribution appeal or otherwise called an income appeal that allows families or students to provide more up to date information about their family’s finances, if there’s been a change. So let’s say for example, a family’s income was significantly higher in 2020, but there’s been a change in employment where that income no longer exists or is much less. The student or the family could provide, for example, a 2021 tax return that shows that documented decrease or something more current like a pay stub or something that shows like a… Yeah, your [inaudible 00:06:49] day pay stub or something that shows, documents, that decrease in income.

Joe Sell:
We can then use that information instead and see if that yields more financial aid than the information from 2020. So all that to say is, yes, there are definitely options for students if there’s ever been any change in the family’s income. Other things we can look at are like, if there are significant out of pocket medical expenses or other sorts of extenuating circumstances, financial circumstances the family has faced, we can take a look at those to see if that impacts or could perhaps allow us to offer more need based financial aid to the student.

Laura Vogt:
And do you have advice to students who are worried about having to take out loans to make that ends meet?

Joe Sell:
Yeah. So what I would say first is, it’s really important to add up what your total costs are. So generally we offer student loans up to the remainder of a student’s cost of attendance. That means the majority of students will likely see a financial, a federal loan or some kind of loan offer in their award package. Now they may or may not actually need to utilize that loan depending on, for example, is their tuition fees covered with grants and scholarships, do they have enough from those grants and scholarships to help cover up their housing for the year? Perhaps they might look at their rent for first semester, say four and a half months. And maybe think, “I may just need a little bit more than what my grants and scholarships are allotting,” then they can consider perhaps borrowing from some of that student loan.

Joe Sell:
We do also sometimes offer federal work study as an alternative to a student loan. That would be an option where a student can actually work on campus or off campus. They would receive like a paycheck, like a standard job, and they could use that income to help pay some of their tuition or their housing or whatever they would like, or just for their other sorts of personal expenses. But to your question, I would say really when it comes to borrowing student loans, it’s really important to know how much more do you need.

Joe Sell:
I would discourage students from just borrowing every single bit of loan they have, unless they know they truly need that amount because the more you borrow, of course, that’s going to be the more you’ll be paying back after school, essentially. And so you could always borrow little bits at a time, a student can borrow say just maybe $500 if that’s just what they need. And then later in the semester could borrow from the rest of that loan if they needed it in the future. So really I say, what it comes down to is just adding up your total cost, adding up your expenses, and then also adding up the resources you have from either financial aid or employment earnings, or savings, whatever the case might be. And if there’s a deficit, then that may be worth looking into, to borrowing from a student loan.

Laura Vogt:
And what are the difference between the different type of loans that are offered?

Joe Sell:
Yeah. So there are a few types of loans. So there are, some of the federal loans that a student might encounter are for students, are the federal subsidized and the federal unsubsidized loan. Now both of these loans have the same interest rate, and that interest rate does change each year, but it is fixed throughout the lifetime of that loan. So say for example, a student borrows a federal subsidized loan this year, if it has a 4% interest rate, it’s going to keep that interest rate throughout the entire life of that loan until that loan is paid off. Now, they may have a new loan next year, they might have a different interest rate, but that first one is always going to keep that same interest rate. That’s the same for both the subsidized and the un-subsidized loan.

Joe Sell:
The primary difference between the two is that the subsidized loan does not accrue any interest while the student is enrolled and during their grace period after school. So the government is essentially subsidizing the interest. So the student is not required to pay it or pay it back. The unsubsidized loan is a little bit different. That loan will begin to accrue interest once it disperses to the students. Now, the student’s not required to make any payments on that loan or that interest until six months after graduation, but any unsubsidized loan borrowed will slowly be accruing interest in the background. So when that student graduates, they may end up having to pay back a little more than they borrowed from the federal unsubsidized loan, whereas a subsidized loan, they would typically just pay back what they borrowed, if it has not accrued any interest as of that point.

Joe Sell:
So those are really the two primary loans. Again, the biggest difference just being that the unsubsidized accrues interest once it disperses. The subsidized loan does not. Another loan that students or families might see is a parent plus loan. This is also a federal loan. It’s also unsubsidized. So it will begin to accrue interest once it disperses. The primary difference between this loan is that instead of it being offered to the student, it’s actually offered to the parent. So the student’s parent, if they would choose to do so, can apply for that parent plus loan through the studentaid.gov website. And if they’re approved, it does do a credit check. If the parent is approved, then they can borrow up to whatever that parent plus loan offer on their student’s award package is.

Joe Sell:
If the parent is not eligible based on their credit check or other criteria such as not being a US citizen, or perhaps being in default on a previous loan or something like that, then we can often instead offer the student some additional unsubsidized loan, usually around $4,000 or so. But I’ll have to say there may be a parent loan as well.

Joe Sell:
And that is a loan that the parent borrows on behalf of the student and the parent isn’t also responsible for repaying after school, similar to a student loan to the student. So those are the primary types of federal student loans that the student will see. For students that file the California Dream Act application. They’re not eligible to receive federal student loans, but we do have what are called institutional loans or loans from the university that they can borrow instead. There are also some state loans. So students that file a California Dream Act application might see what’s called a California Dream Loan offered in their award package. Similar to what I mentioned earlier, that loan is subsidized. That loan would not accrue any interest while they’re in school. And during the summer, there’s also, what’s called a Berkeley loan that we can offer for the California Dream Act students as well. So there are some loans we can offer for students that file the Dream Act Application. Otherwise students who have filed the FAFSA will have access to those federal student and parent loans.

Laura Vogt:
Now do all students have the option of work study instead of taking that loan?

Joe Sell:
It depends on their application information. So work study is considered to be a need based financial aid resource, which means the amount you can receive is determined by your expected family contribution that we mentioned earlier. That’s also important for, we talked about subsidized and unsubsidized loans. That’s what can determine the difference between how much subsidized versus unsubsidized the student might receive, because that subsidized loan is also considered to be need based. That means that how much the student can receive will be based on their financial aid application. Now, to your question, work study works similarly. So the amount of work study a student can receive will be based upon their financial aid application. If a student is eligible, we generally start with an offer of $4,000 for the year. What that would mean is that the student could earn up to $4,000 if they’re hired by a qualifying work study employer.

Joe Sell:
So that money can only be accessed, if the student applies for and is hired by a job that pays through a work study. At that point, then they would just earn at whatever rates the employer pays. Typically work study employers have a little more flexibility with how they schedule hours. They do know their employees are students first. So there often is a bit more understanding from work study employers and as well, it just opens up the pool of jobs that students can apply for. Many employers will only hire students that are work study eligible. And so it does at least increase the job pool that students can apply for. But in general, again, that amount is based on the financial aid application and students would earn up to that maximum based on whatever rate their employer pays.

Laura Vogt:
And… Oh, I had a question about work study, where did I go? Oh, where do students find out about the work study opportunities?

Joe Sell:
Yeah, so they’ll have work study offer in their award package, if they’re eligible. Generally right above that there will be a link that says, find a job. The students can click on that. It’ll take them directly to the work study website. They can also just go to financialaid.berkeley.edu > work-study (financialaid.berkeley.edu/types-of-aid-at-berkeley/work-study/). And that will also take them to our work study portal. There will be a few links. There’s a login link that students can access. They can only access that if they have a work study offered. So if they don’t have one, they might get an error saying they can’t access that portal. But if a student does have work study, they should have access to go ahead and click on that portal. And that will bring them to all the different work study job postings.

Laura Vogt:
And is there anything that could affect or affect the grants that a student is given? Are there, your academics being tracked or anything along those lines?

Joe Sell:
Yes, they are. So one policy we have in financial aid is called satisfactory academic progress, often just called SAP or S-A-P. So federal regulations require that we do monitor the student’s progress. Financial aid is really intended to help students get to graduation. And so what SAP is trying to monitor is making sure that students are meeting a certain rate of progress to getting to graduation. How that is measured is based on three different factors. The first is their GPA. So is the student keeping a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher. Students must maintain that 2.0 GPA in order to remain eligible for financial aid. Students also have to complete at least 67% of all of the units they attempt at Berkeley. Again, that’s something that we would measure. And so if the student is falling short of that 67%, they may not be eligible for financial aid in future terms.

Joe Sell:
The last is that students cannot attempt, and this is specifically for undergraduate students, I should clarify. So undergraduate students cannot attempt more than 180 units. So if a student say comes in with a lot of transfer units, they may perhaps find themselves getting closer to that limit, but just keeping in mind that students have to complete their degree within 180 units to continue to receive financial aid until graduation. Now, if in events that a student does not meet any of those criteria, they would be considered to be not meeting SAP and may not have an award package for that upcoming year. Students can submit what’s called an SAP appeal, so they can definitely appeal that decision.

Joe Sell:
They can say, they can basically just describe and document what the circumstances were. So say for example, there was a medical circumstance or a family circumstance, or even just the case of, a students in a major that’s just not a good fit for them perhaps. They can explain that in their statements, they can document that to us. And then we would review to see if they can continue to receive financial aid via that appeal. So there is, I have to say there is requirement. Students do have to maintain that 2.0 GPA, that 67% rate of completion and cannot attempt more than 180 units. As long as they’re meeting that criteria, they’ll be eligible to continue receiving financial aid.

Laura Vogt:
And if students wanted to still look to see if there were any scholarships available, what’s a good starting point?

Joe Sell:
Yeah. What website I like to suggest is scholarships with an S on the end .berkeley.edu, that links directly to our scholarship connection website. The reason I really like this website is because it’s constantly updated. It’s constantly sort of turning new scholarships as new ones come up, where as deadlines pass. It also has a really great filtering system. So students can click and say, I’m an undergraduate student, I’m studying engineering, I’m a transfer, a third year transfer. I’m a US citizen or permanent resident. And it’ll give a giant list or even international, the international students can use this website as well. Undocumented students can use this website as well. They can specify whatever their criteria are and the website will then give them a list of scholarships that meet those criteria. So just a great way to find scholarships that really do kind of custom fit the students study.

Joe Sell:
Each one will have their own requirements. Typically are, a required application with some sort of outside scholarship donor or scholarship program. Really generally scholarships require, or when we’re referring to outside scholarships, do tend to require an application or some sort of process to apply, but it’s generally free. Actually, it should always be free to apply. If a student is being asked to pay for a scholarship, they should not apply. And that’s generally not typically a scholarship. And so, yes, it always should be free to apply, make sure that… I’d say that website is a great place to start. Also a general, more of a general website is just [inaudible 00:18:35] That’s one that we like to suggest, it’s kind of more broad, it will include scholarships outside of Berkeley as well. But yeah, I really like to recommend that scholarships.berkeley.edu website is a great starting point.

Laura Vogt:
And a lot of this seems to have to do with the students being able to budget during the year. And many probably haven’t had to do that yet. Do you have any suggestions for how students can learn more about budgeting?

Joe Sell:
Yeah, I do. So we actually have a team of students that are called Bears for Financial Success or, BFS. They’re peer mentors. So they are our fellow students that have often perhaps received their own financial aid or have their own sort of circumstance that, they have that personal experience with budgeting. And so they actually offer this as of course, a free service to students where they can meet with students to discuss things like budgeting or perhaps credit cards, or just debt management.

Joe Sell:
Really the more of the personal finance topics, once you’ve received your financial aid, what do you do with it? How do you make it last? What are the best ways to budget that? That’s what the Bears for Financial Success do. And that’s what they’re there for. The students can find them. They can just go to our financial aid website and type in BFS in the search box or Bears for Financial Success, that will take them to their website. They do have office hours. They generally have appointments as well. Definitely a great resource for students if they just want that additional assistance with budgeting or more just general financial information.

Laura Vogt:

And, what’s the best way for students to keep track of any tasks that need to be completed?

Joe Sell:
So in CalCentral, we generally would post any requirements or any tasks through the student’s CalCentral portal. It’s really, really important that students are keeping a regular eye on CalCentral. There will be a my finances tab that they can click on, and that will give them and display everything they need to know about their financial aid. So that will start from their cost of attendance, which kind of estimates what their total cost might be. That’ll include their award package, but also that’ll include other additional information such as any task they need to complete.

Joe Sell:
So if a student is perhaps selected for verification by department of Ed, they might see that displayed on their CalCentral, or it might say verification required or initiated. Similarly, if a student files an appeal or something like that, they can track the progress of that appeal through those tasks. So it might just say being reviewed, and then once it’s done, it’ll update to a completed status and generally students get an email after that. But yeah, it’s just another way to kind of track the requirements. If there’s anything we need a student to complete from the financial aid side of things, it will post to that my finances tab on CalCentral. So just a good idea for students to keep a regular eye on that.

Laura Vogt:
And as we get closer to the start of school, they might see something that says CNP, what does that mean?

Joe Sell:
So CNP stands for cancellation for non-payment. CNP is an Office of the Registrar policy that says that students must pay at least 20% of their tuition fees in order to remain enrolled and not be subject to being canceled for non-payment. So that does have a typically… Usually paid by the tuition fee due date. And so generally, if the student is not able to make that payment or does not have the resources to cover that 20%, they may find themselves subject to being dropped for nonpayment. Now that said, we understand a lot of financial aid recipients are relying on financially to cover that 20% or more of their tuition. So what we often do is for students that have financial aid, that can cover that 20%, we know it’s getting ready to disperse. It just, maybe hasn’t paid quite yet.

Joe Sell:
We can actually put an exception on the file for those students. So some students might see a subject to cancellation for nonpayment, and they might later see something that says that they’re no longer subject to that, or that they’ve been given an exception to that. We really try to extend that as much as we can to our financial aid recipients. Just because again, if we know they’ve got the funding coming, we don’t want them to have to worry about possibly getting dropped, but we can also look at this on a case by case basis as well. If the student just has extenuating circumstances and would like to see if they can get an exception to that cancellation for nonpayment, they can always stop by Cal Student Central and speak with an advisor. We may be able to make an exception for them as well.

Laura Vogt:
And is there a way for students to get emergency aid during the year, if something comes up?

Joe Sell:
There is. So a couple resources I would suggest, the first is our Basic Needs Center. So I really like to suggest the Basic Needs Center for students that maybe facing housing insecurity or food insecurity, or may just need additional resources to cover medical needs or perhaps technology needs. The Basic Needs Center really is just a great resource for providing additional resources or just helping students connect to resources that can benefit them. So they can start by going to the basic needs website. It’s just basicneeds.berkeley.edu. They’ll have an application called the Basic Needs Holistic Fund application. It’s sort of an all encompassing application that will ask them all sort of questions to try to determine what are the resources they need and how can the Basic Needs Center assist.

Joe Sell:
At that point, they may be able to receive resources if the Basic Needs Center is able to reward them based on that application. That application also can be used if a student needs assistance with a housing security deposit. In some cases, we realize that students may not have the financial aid resources to cover a housing security deposit. In that case, students can also apply through that same application and request funding to receive assistance with that deposit. So again, there’s lots of options through basic needs. Another more of a short term option that students can utilize what’s called an emergency loan. It’s not a student loan, really what it is, it would be borrowing a certain amount basically against the student’s account. So say for example, they just need a short term, $200 to cover something. A student could apply for a $200 emergency loan.

Joe Sell:
They would get a $200 refund and they would have a $200 balance on their account. And that would be due within 60 days. There’s no interest on that. It’s really just making sure it’s repaid within 60 days. But that’s another option, if it’s just a short term and the student, if they can pay it back within a short amount of time, that’s a good kind of a short term option as well. I will say this year, we had some resources from Department of Education and from the state through the higher Education Relief Fund. At this point, we do believe those resources are exhausted, or we aren’t anticipating any further, but that could always change in the future. But for now I would definitely recommend the Basic Need Center or the emergency loan as a short term option.

Laura Vogt:
And is there a way that students can meet with a financial aid advisor?

Joe Sell:
Yes. So we have Cal Student Central advisors at 120 Sproul hall. Our Cal Student Central advisors have a really breadth of… Have a great breadth of knowledge. They work with financial aid, they work with the Office of the Registrar and they work with billing and payment services. So really they can answer a lot of questions within all three of those areas, and often more beyond that. So, they’re accessible in person again at 120 Sproul, and students can just come in on a drop in basis.

Joe Sell:
We also have on the phone line, students can call in over the phone. We also have a virtual front desk as well. That is where a student can sign into like a zoom front desk. There’ll be an advisor or a receptionist that will speak with them and help determine which office they can speak with and will then connect them with either a Cal Student Central advisor, or sometimes they may just connect them directly with a financial aid counselor or someone within the Office of the Registrar. So really my suggestion is for students to just start at Cal Student Central, they can answer a lot of questions. And if it’s, for some reason, something that needs additional conversation or maybe just a student wants some additional counseling, or just has additional in depth questions, they can then connect them with the financial aid counselor and we can have that additional conversation with them at that time.

Laura Vogt:
And what’s your biggest piece of advice for our students when working with Financial Aid?

Joe Sell:
I would say the one big piece of advice I would say is check your email. It sounds like a general thing, but it’s really very important, especially when you’re transitioning to a university setting, a lot of communication comes from email. And often, especially speaking from Financial Aid, because we send out a lot of communications to a lot of students. It’s often the most effective way for us to reach out. And so really just encouraging students to make sure they are reading emails. If they see something from financial aid, please don’t gloss over it. Even if it looks like a lot of information, it’s good to at least look through. And the other piece to that I would say to follow up is if you have any questions or that information is at all confusing, or you just have any general questions, please, please come see us and please ask.

Joe Sell:
We definitely want to answer those questions. We want to discuss through any concerns you might have. And often there may be something that we can assist with, or perhaps something that we can find that maybe is something we can do to provide additional assistance based on the circumstances that the student discloses. So really, I would just say, check your emails and really, really connect with us here at Cal Student Central or Financial Aid, if there are any questions at all.

Laura Vogt:
And is there anything that we haven’t talked about today that you want to add?

Joe Sell:
I think that’s about it really. Again, I just kind of circling back, I think just important to keep an eye on things like the, my finances in CalCentral, again checking emails, checking communications, really just keeping aware of anything that we’re sending out. And again, asking questions as they come up, just really want to encourage students to reach out to us if they have any questions. Financial Aid can be incredibly complicated. And so it’s, we want to be here to help and want to be here to have those conversations and assist however we can.

Laura Vogt:
Well, thank you so much Joe, for being here today.

Joe Sell:
Of course. Thanks for having me Laura.

Laura Vogt:
And I know Financial Aid, it’s such an important part of college planning, and there’s often all these questions. So it’s important to try to explain what we can, where we can.

Joe Sell:
That’s right. That’s right.

Laura Vogt:
And thank you for everyone for tuning in. If you’ve got any more questions, make sure you check out the financial aid website and we’re going to have links to everything that we talked about today on our podcast page, which is at coesandbox.berkeley.edu/esspodcast. And I look forward to podcasting with you all again next week. Thank you.