Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan

The Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan strives to ensure that undergraduate students from families with incomes under $80,000 understand that they will have their systemwide fees ($12,192 in 2011-12) covered with grants and scholarships from a combination of all sources.

The Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan sets a goal to, at the minimum, cover systemwide fees for low-income students; it is not a specific scholarship.  You will not see a "Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan" award on MyFinAid.

More than 7,000 students at Berkeley qualify for the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan and therefore have their systemwide fees covered with grant and scholarship funds.

All sources of scholarship and grant awards (federal, State, institutional, and private sources including outside agency scholarships) will count towards covering fees and meeting the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan commitment.

The majority of students who meet the income eligibility standard will already have sufficient grant and scholarship support to cover full UC systemwide fees based on our standard financial aid packaging guidelines. The few students that don't have sufficient grant and scholarship support to cover full UC systemwide fees and are eligible under the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan will receive the difference in a university grant.

Several thousand students who are ineligible for the plan because they do not meet the specific criteria below (such as fifth-year students and nonresidents) qualify for sufficient grant and scholarship support to cover full UC systemwide fees* based on our standard financial aid packaging guidelines.

ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible for the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, students must:

  • Have filed their FAFSA by the March 2nd deadline.
  • Be California residents.
  • Submit a financial aid application (the FAFSA) and provide any requested documentation to verify income and other eligibility criteria by campus deadlines.
  • Apply for a Cal Grant (if not already a recipient).
  • Have financial need (as determined for federal need-based aid programs).
  • Have income below $80,000 and have financial need, as determined for federal need-based aid programs. This is a measure of parents’ income for dependent students.  It is a measure of student’s (and spouse’s, if applicable) income for independent students.
  • Be in their first four years (two if a transfer student) of University undergraduate attendance.
  • Be enrolled in an academic year term (summer is excluded).
  • Meet campus basic requirements for UC grant assistance (e.g., be an on-time applicant, be enrolled at least half-time, meet campus satisfactory academic progress standards, not already hold a bachelor’s degree, not be in default on student loans, etc.).

No student will receive more scholarship and grant support than the calculated financial need.
*Does not include nonresident tuition

Learn more about financing a UC education at these UC Office of the President websites:

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/blueandgold/

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/paying-for-uc/index.html