Adjustments to Your Award Offer

Adjustments to your financial aid offer may happen throughout the year for a number of reasons. The most common reasons for budget or award revisions include:

  • You may have recently made a change in the online financial aid portal, such as accepting or declining loan(s), or requesting a conversion of loan eligibility to work-study.
  • Your budget may have been revised because of a recently submitted Cost of Attendance Adjustment Request, a change in your housing status, or a correction to your residency status. Note: Changes in your housing type may impact the types and amounts of aid you are eligible for, including University grants and/or scholarships.
  • Your enrollment changed from Fall and Spring (two semesters) to Fall only or Spring only (one semester) for the academic year.
  • Your financial aid award may have changed from a conditional award to an official award because we may have recently completed the review of documents you were required to submit, such as a verification form.
  • Fee waivers, department awards, or outside agency awards were recently reported to our system, resulting in a revision to your offer.

Understanding the Changes

You will receive an email notification if your financial aid awards change. The email will point you to CalCentral to review your revised award. The Award Comparison feature in the Awards section allows you to compare your current package to prior packages from the same award year by date. The page displays comparisons of your total awards and cost of attendance as well as changes to individual awards or components of the Estimated Total Cost of Attendance. Additionally, the tool displays changes to profile information such as academic level, enrollment, residency, SAP and verification status that can impact your Estimated Cost of Attendance or financial aid awards. Initial financial aid packages often use assumed values (e.g., self-reported residency, projected housing, SHIP participation/waiver status, and projected full-time enrollment prior to term census dates) to determine award eligibility. If assumed values change or cannot be confirmed, your aid will be adjusted and may result in an invoice.

What is a Conditional Offer?

In some cases, the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office may require additional information from you before we can make an official offer of financial aid. Until we receive and review that additional information, you will have “conditional awards” in the My Finances section of CalCentral. This conditional offer is an estimate of your financial aid eligibility and is subject to change. You will be notified of your conditional award status in CalCentral.

You may receive conditional awards for the following reasons:

  • You may have been selected for a process called verification. You will find more information under the Task in CalCentral. Your financial aid awards will remain conditional, and subject to change, until the verification process is completed.
  • Students that applied for aid using the California Dream Act Application must have their AB540 eligibility confirmed by the Residency Office. Be sure to complete your Statement of Legal Residence as soon as possible.

 

Disclosure: UC Berkeley reserves the right to adjust awards to correct any awarding errors. Changes to qualifying information or revisions of federal, state or institutional policy may result in updates to aid eligibility and adjustments of financial aid awards. Information is subject to change.