California Dream Act Part 1 - AB 130 - Scholarships

AB 130 allows all students who qualify for AB 540 nonresident tuition exemptions (see AB 540 below), including those who are undocumented, to receive scholarships funded from private sources, such as gifts to UC and UC endowments. AB 130 takes effect on January 1, 2012.  The UC Santa Cruz campus has a small amount of funding that will be used to make scholarship awards to students  for winter and spring quarters of 2012.  Due to funding limitations, priority will be given to students who are the closest to graduation.

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California Dream Act Part 2 - AB 131 - Grants

AB 131 allows all students who qualify for AB 540 nonresident tuition exemptions, including those who are undocumented, to apply for Cal Grant awards and for grants and scholarships awarded by California public colleges and universities. This new law will take effect on January 1, 2013 for UC institutional aid.  UC Santa Cruz will award UC Santa Cruz grants to eligible aid applicants for winter and spring quarters of 2013.  Cal Grants take effect for the 2013‐2014 school year. 

Beginning in 2013-14 benefits under both AB 130 and AB 131 will be fully implemented. Students who previously were not eligible for student aid will be eligible to apply for UC Santa Cruz Grants and scholarships as well as for state Cal Grants. 

The Dream App - an online state application is under development and is expected to be available in early April 2012.  This is the application you will use - only if you are not eligible to submit a FAFSA - to apply for UC grants for winter and spring 2013.  Submt this application to UC Santa Cruz when it is available. 

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AB 540 Non-Resident Tuition Waivers

Under AB 540 legislation, undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who would otherwise be considered non-California residents may qualify for an exemption from UC nonresident tuition if they meet the following criteria:

1. Enrolled, or in the process of enrolling at a University of California campus after January 1, 2002 and,
2. Attended a high school in California for at least three or more years and graduated from a California high school (or attained the equivalent).

Students who meet this criteria but who do not meet aid program citizenship requirements, may not qualify to receive most forms of financial aid.  If this is your situation a cost saving strategy is to try to keep your room and board costs low.  You may do this by living with friends, family or relatives in the Santa Cruz area or in the area where you ultimately decide to enroll in college.

Educators for Fair Consideration (E4FC) offers low-income immigrant students, from the San Francisco Bay Area, scholarships to attend U.S. colleges. Also see their Financial Aid Guide for College Bound Undocumented Students.

See also, Private Scholarship listings.

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Resident Assistants

Students who live and work in campus-owned residence halls receive reduced housing charges in exchange for their services - at UC Santa Cruz this is known as a "perquisite".  Similar to wages earned, the reduced charges/perquisite must be reported as income received when applying for financial aid in future years. The perquisite does not affect your aid for the current year. It is factored into the EFC calculation for future academic years. When completing a FAFSA, refer to our FAFSA Guidelines for Residential Assistants.The housing positions for which perquisites are offered include:

• Resident Assistants (RAs)
• Neighborhood Assistants (NAs)
• Food Service Advisers Duty Monitors (DMs)
• Village Residential Assistants
• Family Student Housing Resident Assistants

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Veterans Benefits

If you are a veteran who served on continuous active duty for 181 days or more after January 13, 1955, you may qualify for educational benefits under the G. I. Bill. You may also qualify for educational benefits if you served at least 90 aggregate days on active duty after September 10, 2001, and you meet one of the following conditions:

• You are still on active duty
• You were honorably discharged from active duty
• You were released from active duty and placed on the retired list or temporary disability retired list
• You were released from active duty and transferred to the Fleet Reserve or Fleet Marine Corps Reserve
• You were released from the active duty for service in a reserve component of the Armed Forces

Dependents of Veterans - If you are a dependent of a veteran who died or is permanently disabled as a result of military duty, you also may be eligible for educational benefits.

California Residents - The dependent child, spouse or unmarried surviving spouses of a service-connected disabled or deceased veteran may be entitled to tuition and fee waiver benefits at any campus of the California State University system, University of California or a California Community College. To ensure you receive a fee waiver, California Veteran Fee Waiver recipients must send a copy of their Eligibility Letter to the UCSC Registrar's Office at 1156 High Street, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. A copy of this letter will be forwarded to our office for use in coordinating your eligibility for other financial aid.

Note: Each student may receive one type of fee-paying grant or benefit. If you are eligible for both a Cal Vet Fee Waiver and another type of fee-paying award such as a Cal Grant, you will be advised to use the Cal Grant to pay your fees and reserve the Cal Vet waiver for use in summer or when you are no longer eligible for the Cal Grant.