I actually wrote this a number of weeks ago for the Golden Bear Blog, but even though I already finished writing it, I never quite posted it. So I’ll do it now here, in honor of that “money falling from the sky” post. Basically, I did 6 semesters and 3 summers at Berkeley, plus 2 semesters abroad, without a single loan. I’m not an expert on financial issues, and as with many Asian parents, my mother was willing to support me through my undergraduate education. However, I do have a few general tips on relieving the financial load at Cal. And this also goes to show that there are many ways to make education affordable. When there’s a will, there’s a way.

• Get good grades, both in high school and in college. The top entering freshmen can receive the Regents and Chancellors Scholarship, which includes a monetary award in addition to other benefits such as priority course selection and guaranteed housing. Another scholarship is the Berkeley Undergraduate Scholarship, which is offered to outstanding students with financial need. The cutoff is a 4.1 weighted GPA for entering freshmen, and a 3.5 GPA for new transfers and continuing students. These are two of the major scholarships, but a lot of other scholarships and gift aids take academic achievement into consideration as well.
• Join student organizations. Some of them will open the doors to scholarship opportunities. But again, financial need and academic achievement are almost always the first things considered.
• Try for one of the cool prizes that Berkeley offers! I haven’t done it myself, but they can be a fun way to do something creative and earn some money in the process. The website is http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/types_prizes.htm.
• Take advantage of work-study opportunities. These will boost your resume and give you some more pocket cash. Students with work-study included in their financial package also have an easier time finding campus jobs, which is another reason to take advantage of this.
• Look for ways to save money. Can’t afford expensive textbooks? Order online or buy from a friend! Campus housing taking its toll on your bank account? Get together with some friends and look for an apartment elsewhere!
• Search for scholarship opportunities. Not all scholarships will jump out at you. A couple of my French classmates received awards and grants that I haven’t even heard of (until it got published in our departmental newsletter) to work on their honors theses. Sometimes, it takes research and effort, but you’ll never know if you can get one of these awards until you try.
• Apply for all the scholarships you’re qualified for. Let’s face it, application essays are a drag to write, and I was often tempted to give up scholarship opportunities. Well, one of the times I got an email about a scholarship, and I almost didn’t apply, but I ended up doing it and got $5000 to support my year abroad.
• Remember that Berkeley is still a public school, even with all the tuition increases. As much as it costs to go here, students going to private school pay many times more than we do. Some, especially the more prestigious schools, will also have high costs of living. Knowing this doesn’t help pay the tuition, but it can make you feel much better!

That being said, here are some of the ways that I got money to support my own undergraduate education. Yes, I did have help from my mother, but still, she ended up spending very little of her own money than she initially expected because of all these things. And against all odds, I graduated without accepting any student loans whatsoever.

• Berkeley Undergraduate Scholarship – gave me over $10,000 this past year alone and I don’t know how much overall. Again, this scholarship is based on both academic merit and financial need. I received this scholarship starting my first semester and all the way until the very end.
• Federal Pell Grant – I have no idea what this thing is. It just came with my financial aid package. But I do know that I got $1800 from this grant over the past academic year.
• Paul Brun Scholarship – last October, I got an email from the French department saying that I received this award (it was not by application, and I had no idea that this scholarship even existed). So it was a pleasant surprise, and I ended up receiving $2200 from this. This scholarship was based on financial need and academic achievement, both overall and within the French major.
• Dan Wise Scholarship – upon being accepted to the EAP Bordeaux year immersion program, I was notified of this scholarship opportunity open to students studying abroad in a France year program. So I wrote an application essay presenting my financial need and goals on the program, and got a letter of recommendation from a graduate student instructor. I ended up receiving $5000 from this scholarship.
• George Miller Scholarship – this was a scholarship offered to Cal Band members. When the opportunity was announced, I decided to apply and ended up getting the scholarship. I don’t remember how much the money was, but it was several thousand dollars at least. Again, financial need, academic merit…and music, obviously.
• Edward Frank Kraft Award for Freshmen – this wasn’t much help financially, but it was something. This award amounts to a few hundred dollars and is given to all freshmen who receive a 4.0 GPA after completing their first semester with 13+ units (12 for the College of Engineering) for a letter grade.
• Outside sponsor – my mother has been working at Stanford University for a number of years, and one of her employee benefits is a tuition grant for her children for 8 semesters, up to the amount equivalent to half of Stanford’s own tuition. In other words, this money covered my entire tuition, and I used it for summer terms as well. Obviously this is unique to my own situation, but we’ve also been turning down the Cal Grant in favor of this. If I didn’t take this, the Cal Grant would offer almost just as much money.

The take-away message here is that there are plenty of ways to support an undergraduate education without using loans, and if loans are used, that’s another extra source of money to help you get through these years, even if you do need to pay them back. But I find that the best way to get money is always to take advantage of all opportunities and do your best in your academics, starting this very instant. The university does want its students to succeed and is willing to help them do so.