UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall) Law Class of 2018 Forum

[middlebear]

Where do you find the aid award? I checked under "Award Detail" and all that's listed are my loan options. Does that mean Boalt is giving me a big ol' ZERO in merit aid or am I looking in the wrong spot?

Hoping I'm wrong...

Edit: Nevermind, I found the "My Net Cost" and "My Gift Aid" section... Yup, it's zero. Berkeley must be kidding themselves. So do I ask them to match Duke's award, or do I just show them my Harvard acceptance and gently suggest they're gonna need to buy me away?

Yup - thanks Berk, I'll go to a T6 instead.

[morningstar]

I know someone else has brought this up too, but I just want to be able to figure out if we've been passed over for merit aid or if we haven't been considered yet.

[Berwyn85]

I feel like by "financial aid" in this case they're specifically referring to loans. I've not received a merit aid award yet, and I'm nervous too, but I think that the wave today was pretty clearly just them processing government loans.

When I've gotten emails from other schools about scholarships, they've referred very specifically to merit - so I'm going with the thought that they haven't finished handing those out yet.

[Oskosh]

I just don't feel like this is it. But who knows? Would definitely not attend next year if this is the case, but that's because I would want to re-test.

[middlebear]

I just feel like it would be incredibly dumb to send an email out just about loans--we all know that we're going to be taking loans, and most of us know which kinds of loans we're getting already, unless you're international you pretty much already know--and make it appear to a portion of your admitted class they're not getting any scholarship aid if, in fact, you were planning on giving them aid. It's both incredibly confusing to all involved, and is sort of a guarantee to piss off people you want to come to your school.

And the fact that there is a big fat zero under gift aid to me seems... indicative that this is final. Maybe if there was a blank or n/a, but there is a number, and it is zero. And the UC system's broke. But who knows, maybe I would just run my financial aid office entirely differently.

[AriTheHuman]

I just want to say thank you to everyone posting today. I pretty much melted down seeing my gift aid as 0 today, and everyone's responses and questions made me feel much better.

Are we expected to wait until the end of April? Are we expected to let all of our other offers lapse while we wait to hear the final word on scholarships from Berkeley?

Also: Under My Net Cost, does anyone else have the wrong graduation date listed?
Mine says May 2016. Every time I try to update it, I get logged out of the system.

[Oskosh]

I'm trying to remain optimistic here and think of it as such: This is purely need-based aid. I think they said they would have our need-based aid offer by April, and that scholarships/merit aid would be rolling out throughout April. The fact that we have a significant amount of loans does not mean that that is all Berkeley is offering us. In other words, what we see is our need-based package, and it has yet to be adjusted pursuant to merit aid.

[sheishkabob]

I just feel like it would be incredibly dumb to send an email out just about loans--we all know that we're going to be taking loans, and most of us know which kinds of loans we're getting already, unless you're international you pretty much already know--and make it appear to a portion of your admitted class they're not getting any scholarship aid if, in fact, you were planning on giving them aid. It's both incredibly confusing to all involved, and is sort of a guarantee to piss off people you want to come to your school.

And the fact that there is a big fat zero under gift aid to me seems... indicative that this is final. Maybe if there was a blank or n/a, but there is a number, and it is zero. And the UC system's broke. But who knows, maybe I would just run my financial aid office entirely differently.

I second this...I have a pessimistic feeling that it's final as well. I find it hard to believe that they still haven't made scholarship decisions after all these months, and then would blast an email announcement about the availability of financial aid without specifying that it's just need-based, etc. It's just weird that only a few matching people have heard? I never even got a "sorry sucks no matching" email

Edit: to add to this, does everyone with merit and/or matching offers see their awards posted on there?

[LoganCouture]

Just want to chime in to say that only my need based aid shows up online right now, despite being awarded a matching "Boalt Fellowship" yesterday.

[middlebear]

Just want to chime in to say that only my need based aid shows up online right now, despite being awarded a matching "Boalt Fellowship" yesterday.

Hm. Interesting.

[Oskosh]

So it is possible that I am correct. I truly do think this is Berkeley letting us see our need based aid at the moment. I mean, that's what we wanted, right? Perhaps it was a miscommunication on their behalf. They never had the intention of releasing our merit aid by April. Where is that user who informed us all of Berkeley's bi-financial aid system (i.e, Berkeley merit aid/need based are different entities)? I feel like this is a manifestation of it. Perhaps we are not THAT well off. Perhaps we have been "held" for scholarships, but also remember that many users here said that Berkeley requested quick decisions from those to whom a scholarship was extended.

[AriTheHuman]

Just want to chime in to say that only my need based aid shows up online right now, despite being awarded a matching "Boalt Fellowship" yesterday.

So does it currently say that your gift aid is 0?

[sheishkabob]

So it is possible that I am correct. I truly do think this is Berkeley letting us see our need based aid at the moment. I mean, that's what we wanted, right? Perhaps it was a miscommunication on their behalf. They never had the intention of releasing our merit aid by April. Where is that user who informed us all of Berkeley's bi-financial aid system (i.e, Berkeley merit aid/need based are different entities)? I feel like this is a manifestation of it. Perhaps we are not THAT well off. Perhaps we have been "held" for scholarships, but also remember that many users here said that Berkeley requested quick decisions from those to whom a scholarship was extended.

True. I shall continue my pessimism and say that I still don't feel well off, considering people that submitted matching requests after me have heard back. If we have to wait until the end of April though I may spontaneously combust

[Tigerlily74]

I think it is possible they are just waiting until they hear back from us that have been offered matching scholarships - I have a VERY short decision time-frame/deadline to respond to their scholarship offer. My scholarship offer is displaying on the website.

But it is awful that this means many people will not have their decision by the time deposits are due at the other top schools. I suppose they justify this in part by not requiring a seat deposit themselves? So you have the funds to put down at another school and wait on them....lovely. All I know is it's a great way to put all of your potential students through a massive bout of anxiety.

[Oskosh]

Just want to chime in to say that only my need based aid shows up online right now, despite being awarded a matching "Boalt Fellowship" yesterday.

So does it currently say that your gift aid is 0?

LC could have received the maximum grant. Mine lists the maximum grant amount, so it is not 0. It is all speculation at this point, but it does sound like Berkeley simply made the need based aid available.

[ZamboniTheGreat]

At first I reacted this way: http://i.imgur.com/CgrMo.gif but, if I remember correctly, at ASW they said to no trust the MyFinAid page since it is primarily a page for UC Berkeley and not as much for Berkeley law. I believe they said that some aid would not be reflected accurately. Can someone who was at ASW confirm this or did I just make this shit up to cope with not having aid.

Also, mine does no have a "0" as many on here are saying, it is blank for me.

[LoganCouture]

Just want to chime in to say that only my need based aid shows up online right now, despite being awarded a matching "Boalt Fellowship" yesterday.

So does it currently say that your gift aid is 0?

LC could have received the maximum grant. Mine lists the maximum grant amount, so it is not 0. It is all speculation at this point, but it does sound like Berkeley simply made the need based aid available.

Ah, sorry if that was confusing.

For "My Gift Aid" it displays my need-based offer ($XX,XXX).

My net cost is "Total UC Berkeley Costs" less the need-based offer I received ($XX,XXX). My merit based matching scholarship I received yesterday has not been factored into the gift aid so my "Total Costs" figure is much higher than it should actually be.

I was just offering myself as an example of the fact that not all merit-based awards are in the system yet.

[JFO1833]

They said during ASW that they would send a "you are not getting a scholarship" e-mail but it may not come until May. I also heard the bit about the site just showing loans until they have scholarships awarded.

I would not read too much into what BearFacts says today.

(FYI I got similar loan only awards from other schools that had not yet offered scholarships, so Berkeley is not alone).

[strugglebus]

At first I reacted this way: http://i.imgur.com/CgrMo.gif but, if I remember correctly, at ASW they said to no trust the MyFinAid page since it is primarily a page for UC Berkeley and not as much for Berkeley law. I believe they said that some aid would not be reflected accurately. Can someone who was at ASW confirm this or did I just make this shit up to cope with not having aid.

Also, mine does no have a "0" as many on here are saying, it is blank for me.

They definitely said that it would start showing $0 merit aid for people who were still under consideration.

[morningstar]

I guess this whole thing has me confused. Is this what other people are seeing under "Award Details" in MyFinAid? Or do some people have other types of Gift Aid showing $0?

[strugglebus]

I can't even get to "Award Details" (it's now loading a statement about how I didn't apply for need aid) and I got a matching award earlier today, so I wouldn't read much into it except maybe the need-based part.

[AriTheHuman]

If you go to My Net Cost, that's the page where it says My Gift Aid is 0

[mvp_13]

Just want to chime in to say that only my need based aid shows up online right now, despite being awarded a matching "Boalt Fellowship" yesterday.

Was awarded the same fellowship early last week and mine does show up. It could just be that they're lagging behind on updates and also perhaps, like others mentioned, haven't fully disbursed all the gift aid they have available. My matching scholarship offer gave me until April 7th to decline so I imagine there will be at least a few declines that will be allotted to others after this week.

[Berwyn85]

I just got an email confirming that they'd recieved my matching application, and that they're going to begin reviewing it, so methinks they are not done yet.

[bingo90]

I just got that confirmation as well.

Also, I was reading through the checklist on the ASW and this is under May-June: "If you submit all of your aid applications on time you usually should be able to see your initial offer through the campus BearFacts system. If your offer is missing or incomplete, please check to make sure that you have satisfied all of your financial aid requirements to date and contact Financial Aid if you believe that there is an error in your record. Your offer should include any loans and need-based grants for which you are eligible. The scholarship committee is currently determining scholarship awards and will notify recipients directly by e-mail. Once a determination is made, the scholarship award will be added to the recipient's financial aid offer."

So it looks like scholarship offers will still be going out, possibly until June!