UCSB Financial Aid

The ACG program was created by Congress in 2006, and it was available for the first time in the 2006-07 school year. The ACG award provides $750 for the first year of undergraduate study and $1,300 for the second year of undergraduate study.

ACG Eligibility

Congress limited the eligibility to first year students who graduated from high school after January 1, 2006 and to second year students who graduated from high school after January 1, 2005. Additionally, eligible students must:

Be a U.S. citizens and be eligible for a Pell Grant.
Be enrolled in the first or second academic year of their programs of study. Students enrolled as “undeclared majors” are eligible.
Have completed a “rigorous” high school curriculum. Students who completed the normal University of California A-G high school course requirements for admission meet this rigorous curriculum criterion. Students admitted to UCSB under other criteria must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
For “second academic year” eligibility, students must have a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA at the end of the first academic year. This measurement is taken at the end of the quarter in which a student’s “total units completed’ first exceeds 44 units.
Be enrolled full-time. At UCSB, full-time is a minimum of 12 units per quarter. This will be determined at each quarter’s census date (the 15th class day each quarter).

Students enrolled in less than 12 units on census date will be billed back for any ACG paid to them that quarter.
“Variable Unit” course units will be counted as the number of units shown on the student’s registration record. The units that a student may earn by the end of the quarter are not what are used in the unit count.
If a student’s grant is reduced or cancelled based on census date units, it cannot be increased or reinstated if more units are added at a later date.

Academic Year Definition: Schools are responsible for defining the criteria for measuring “academic year” for this program. For ACG eligibility, UCSB students are considered to be in their 1st academic year as long as they have completed less than 45 units. Students are considered to be in their 2nd academic year when they have completed between 45 and 89 units. Once students have 90 or more units, they have completed the 2nd academic year and are no longer eligible for an ACG award.

Transfer, AP, and IB Units: Transfer units are counted, but units earned through AP and IB exams are not counted. Transfer students admitted as 2nd year students for fall 2007 will have their eligibility based on their transfer units and GPA.

Award Calendar

New Freshmen and Lower Division (freshmen and sophomore) Transfer Students: Early September

We begin to research Pell Grant eligible students’ admissions records in early September to determine if:

they have met the “rigorous high school curriculum” criterion; and
any transfer units have been accepted.

Most new students’ financial aid applications have been reviewed by this time, and they have received their official Financial Aid Award Letter. Thus, the adding of an ACG award will be a revision to the aid eligibility. In no case is an ACG awarded until after the financial aid application is complete, it has been reviewed, and official financial aid eligibility determined.

Continuing Freshmen and Sophomores: Late August or early September.

Continuing students’ eligibility is partially based on whether they have crossed from one academic year into the next academic year. Summer Session units have an effect on this progress, so we must wait until summer session ends to count units for those students that are enrolled. For continuing students not enrolled in Summer Session, we begin reviewing their ACG eligibility in late August after we confirm that they have not enrolled in Summer Session B that begins in August.

Disbursement: We do not disburse an ACG award until the student is enrolled in a minimum of 12 units.

Alternative loans are educational loans available from private lending agencies, such as banks, credit unions, and other lending institutions. They are not federally guaranteed student loans. These loans are provided by private lenders for those students who need to borrow funds in excess of the yearly maximums for the federal loan programs. Most lenders will take applicants’ credit history into consideration when evaluating applicants’ eligibility. Students and/or parents may be eligible for these alternative loans which have varying criteria (interest rates, minimum monthly repayments, etc.).

Students and parents may borrow through the lender of their choice. Most alternative loan lenders provide for an electronic application on their web sites. To view a comparison of a limited number of lenders’ alternative loan terms, please visit the loan comparison list at: http://www.elmselect.com/oll/SchoolLenderList/?schoolId=1882 This comparison chart outlines lending policies for several major educational loan lending agencies. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list.

Students and parents have the right and the ability to select the educational loan lender of their choice. They are not required to use any of the lenders on this chart. Accordingly, they will suffer no penalty for choosing a lender that is not on this chart.
We highly recommend that students exhaust their federal Direct Loan eligibility before pursuing funds through an alternative loan.

Parents of dependent students are able to borrow up to the complete cost of education through the federal Direct PLUS Loan program.

Cal Grants are administered by the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC). New awards are made by CSAC. To be eligible for a Cal Grant a student must:

be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident or eligible non-citizen;
be a California resident attending an eligible school in California on at least a half-time basis;
not have received a prior Bachelor's degree;
meet the satisfactory academic progress standards as determined by the institution;
not be in default on a federal student loan or owe a refund on a federal or state grant; demonstrate financial need;
meet the minimum GPA as determined by CSAC; and
not exceed the income and asset ceiling established by CSAC.

Cal Grant A: Awarded to students from low and middle income families. It provides registration fee assistance only. At a UC, it pays the mandatory fees charged to all UC students. It does not cover the campus based fees that vary from campus to campus.

Cal Grant B: Awarded to students from disadvantaged and low income families. In the first year of eligibility, it only provides a $1551 Access Grant. In the second through fourth years, it provides fee assistance in addition to the Access Grant.

Access Grant Disbursement Options: Our institutional policy is to credit Access Grants to students’ BARC accounts where it will first be applied to quarterly charges before credit balance refunds are disbursed. As an option, Cal Grant B recipients may request that their Access Grants be paid directly to them. This request must be made in writing to the Cal Grant Coordinator in the Financial Aid Office.

Application Procedure: New Applicants must file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and a GPA Verification Form by March 2 prior to the academic year for which the award is intended. CSAC determines eligibility for new awards and notifies the eligible institution(s) listed on the FAFSA of these awards. Renewal Applicants must only file the FAFSA and demonstrate need as determined by the institution. You can check the status of your Cal Grant at https://mygrantinfo.csac.ca.gov/logon.asp

Cal Grant B Access Grant and Census Date Units: Each quarter’s Cal Grant B Access Grant is partially based on whether an eligible student is enrolled full-time (12 or more units), 3/4-time (9-11.5 units), 1/2-time (6-8.5 units), or less than 1/2-time (below 6 units). This measurement will be taken at census date (the 15th class date of each quarter). Students who are enrolled less than full-time on census date will have their Cal Grant Stipend for that quarter reduced to a level that reflects their enrollment level. For example, a student enrolled in 10 units will have that quarter’s Cal Grant Access Grant reduced to a 3/4-time award. This may necessitate a billing back of aid already received.

UCSB participates in the Federal Direct Loan program. Funds for the Direct Loans are provided by the U.S. government directly to students and their parents. This loan has low interest rates and does not require credit checks or collateral. Direct loans also provide a variety of deferment options and extended repayment terms.

All Direct Loans are either subsidized or unsubsidized. Under the subsidized version, the government pays the interest while students are in school. To receive a subsidized Direct Loan, you must be able to demonstrate financial need.

With unsubsidized loans, students pay all the interest, although they can have the interest payments deferred until after graduation by capitalizing the interest. This adds the interest payments to the loan balance, increasing the size and cost of the loan. All students, regardless of need, are eligible for the unsubsidized Direct Loan.

Direct Loans allow dependent undergraduates to borrow up to $5,500 their freshman year ($3,500 may be subsidized), $6,500 their sophomore year ($4,500 may be subsidized) and $7,500 for each remaining year ($5,500 may be subsidized). Independent students and students whose parents have been turned down for a PLUS loan can borrow an additional unsubsidized $4,000 the first two years and $5,000 the remaining years). Graduate students can borrow $20,500 per year, although only $8,500 of that is subsidized. There are also cumulative subsidized limits of $23,000 for an undergraduate education and a $65,500 (includes amounts received as an undergraduate student) subsidized limit for graduate. For undergraduate independent students and for dependent undergraduate students whose parents were denied a PLUS loan the cumulative limit (subsidized plus unsubsidized loans) is $57,500. For graduate students, the cumulative limit (subsidized plus unsubsidized loans) is $138,500.

Many students combine subsidized loans with unsubsidized loans to borrow the maximum amount permitted each year.

UCSB does not participate in the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) through which students borrow their federal loan eligibility through private lenders such as banks and credit unions.

Federal legislation permits graduate students to borrow through the PLUS (Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students) Loan program. The Grad PLUS Loan allows graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of education minus other aid received.

The interest rate is fixed at 7.9%. Interest begins accruing as soon as the first disbursement is made.
For graduate students, payments on their Grad PLUS Loan are deferred while they are in school as long as they are enrolled at least half-time.
The proceeds of the Graduate PLUS are credited to students’ BARC accounts.
How to Apply: “Grad PLUS Loan Eligibility” is listed as one of the types of aid on graduate students’ 2007-08 Financial Aid Award Letters. The award letter is accessed through the “My Aid Status” link on the Financial Aid Office’s web site. The link to the “2007-08 Grad PLUS Loan Request Form” is located on the student’s award letter.
Graduate students must also complete a PLUS Loan master promissory note, available at: http://www.dlenote.ed.gov.

For more information on this program, please contact the Financial Aid Office.

The National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grant program created by Congress in 2006, and was available for the first time in the 2006-07 school year. This program provides $4,000 for each of the third and fourth years of study to needy students who are pursuing a four-year degree with a major in one of the physical or life sciences, computer science, engineering, mathematics, technology, or a critical foreign language. Eligible students’ grade point averages are monitored each quarter.

SMART Grant Eligibility

To be eligible for a SMART Grant, students must:

Be a U.S. citizens; Be eligible for a Pell Grant
Be enrolled full-time in a degree program. At UCSB, full-time is a minimum of 12 units per quarter. This will be determined at each quarter’s census date (the 15th class day each quarter).

Students enrolled in less than 12 units will be billed back for any SMART Grants paid to them that quarter;
“Variable Unit” course units will be counted as the number of units shown on the student’s registration record. The units that a student may earn by the end of the quarter are not what are used in the unit count
If a student’s grant is reduced or cancelled based on census date units, it cannot be increased or reinstated if more units are added at a later date.

Major in physical, life, or computer science, engineering, mathematics, technology, or a critical foreign language;

At UCSB, the “pre-majors” (e.g., pre-Biology, pre-Computer Engineering, etc.) are included in the list of eligible majors;
The “critical foreign language” majors that qualify at UCSB are Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Portuguese.

Have and maintain at least a cumulative 3.0 GPA for all quarters of eligibility. Students admitted as juniors for fall 2007 will have their initial eligibility based on their transfer units and GPA.

Academic Year Definition: Each school is responsible for defining the criteria for measuring “academic year” for this program. For the SMART Grant, UCSB students are considered to be in their 3rd academic year as long as they have completed between 90 and 134 units. Students are considered to be in their 4th academic year when they have completed between 135 and 180 units. Once students have 180 or more units, they have completed the 4th academic year and are no longer eligible for a SMART Grant. The only exceptions to this “180 units” limit are the 4 majors in the College of Engineering that require more units to graduate. They are:

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 191 units
COMPUTER ENGINEERING 184 units
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 191 units
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 183 units

Transfer, AP, and IB Units: Transfer units are counted, but units earned through AP and IB exams are not counted.

Eligible Majors

At UCSB, the SMART Grant eligible majors are:

Applied Mathematics	Aquatic Biology	Biochemical/Molecular Biology
Biochemistry	Biochemistry-Molecular Biology	Biological Sciences
Biology	Biology-CS	Biology-EEMB
Biology-MCDB	Biopsychology	Botany
Cell & Develop Biology	Cell Organ Biology	Chemical Engineering
Chemistry	Chemistry and Biochemistry-CS	Chinese
Computer Engineering	Computer Science	Computer Science-CS
Ecology & Evolution	Ecology, Evolution, & Marine Biology	Electrical & Computer Engineering
Electrical Engineering	Environmental Biology	Environmental Science
Field Biology	Financial Math/Statistics	Geological Sciences
Geology	Geophysics	Human Ecology
Hydrologic Sciences	Japanese	Life Science
Marine Science	Materials	Mathematics
Mathematics-CS	Mechanical Engineering	Microbiology
Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology	Nuclear Engineering	Pharmacology
Physics	Physics-CS	Physiological Psychology
Physiology	Physiology and Cell Biology	Portuguese
Pre-Biology	Pre-Computer Engineering	Pre-Computer Science
Pre-Electrical Engineering	Pre-Financial Math/Statistics	Pre-Geological Sciences
Pre-Geophysics	Pre-Math Science	Pre-Mathematics
Russian	Statistical Science	Statistics
Statistics/Applied Probability	Zoology

Award Calendar

New Junior and Senior Transfer Students: Early September

We begin to research Pell Grant eligible students’ admissions records in early September to determine:

if they are in a SMART Grant eligible major;
the number of transfer units accepted; and
the transfer GPA

Most new students’ financial aid applications have been reviewed by this time, and they have received their official Financial Aid Award Letter. Thus, the adding of a SMART Grant will be a revision to the aid eligibility. In no case is a SMART Grant awarded until after the financial aid application is complete, it has been reviewed, and official financial aid eligibility determined.

We do not disburse a SMART Grant until the student is enrolled in a minimum of 12 units.

Continuing Juniors and Seniors: Late August or Early September

Continuing students’ eligibility is partially based on whether they have crossed from one academic year into the next academic year. Summer Session units have an effect on this progress, so we must wait until summer session ends to count units for those students that are enrolled. For continuing students not enrolled in Summer Session, we begin reviewing their SMART Grant eligibility in late August after we confirm that they have not enrolled in Summer Session B that begins in August.