Entering First Year Students

How to file FAFSA to multiple schools and include parent information for Berkeley only

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As you may already know, the FAFSA application for 2012-13 is now available.

All students who wish to be considered for a need-based grant MUST submit complete parent information on the FAFSA and supplemental application unless they meet the requirements for financial independence for that academic year. Without complete parent information, the applicant will not be considered for grant eligibility.
Students who do not wish to include  parent information on the FAFSA for other law schools may want to consider submitting the FAFSA to those schools first, then resubmitting for Berkeley. This can be done once an e mail is received confirming receipt of the initial FAFSA submission.  Remove those school codes, add the information to complete your application to Berkeley and resubmit with Berkeley’s school code, 001312.

Tuition offsets will be posted to MyFinAid records this week

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The law school’s Financial Aid staff is currently in the process of posting awards (tuition offsets) in the amount of $1,068 to the records of all JD students who will be enrolled this fall. If you do not see the award on your MyFinAid record, please be patient as this is a manual process which we expect to complete by August 5 or early in the following week at the latest.

Refund Emails Sent in Error

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We have been told that Billing & Payment Services (BPS) made an error and sent e-mail to students telling them that their financial aid refunds are now available. If you received the message, please disregard it. Fall 2011 financial aid refunds are scheduled to be disbursed on August 18.

Activate Your Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Account

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Berkeley Law Financial Aid and the campus’ Billing & Payment Services (BPS) office highly recommend that all students have an active Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) account.

Every August we have entering law students who need to stand in long lines to pick up their financial aid refund as a paper check. The BPS office at 140 University Hall serves the entire UC Berkeley campus and the first week refunds are available you can find a line wrapped around the building with undergraduate and graduate students as well as a few unfortunate law students. For this reason we stress the importance of enrolling in EFT. Although the BPS website indicates that an EFT request is processed within 7 days, we have seen situations where it takes weeks longer.

Enroll in EFT now at https://eftstudent.berkeley.edu/

Learn more about how law students pay fees and receive refunds.

San Luis Obispo County Women Lawyers Association Scholarship

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The San Luis Obispo County Women Lawyers Association is offering up to $750 in scholarship awards to all law students with a demonstrable connection to San Luis Obispo County. The number of scholarships and amount of funds per scholarship will be determined upon review of applications. Award recipients will be notified and invited to attend the annual judicial reception to be held in October 2011.

Applications can be found online at http://www.wlaslo.org/scholarships.html and must be postmarked by July 1, 2011. For additional information, please contact Stacy Millich at (805) 546-3270.

SLR/Residency Petition Deadline June 1

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Entering students – Don’t forget to submit your Statement of Legal Residence by June 1. The online form can be found on the SLR tab in BearFacts.

Continuing students – If you are petitioning for residency, submit the form through BearFacts and deliver/mail the supporting documents to 120 Sproul Hall. The online form and supporting documents must be received by June 1.

For more information on residency, visit the Residency Office’s website or call them at 510-642-5990.

Frank H. Lang Merit Scholarship

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The Frank H. Lang Merit Scholarship is an annual award of $1,000 from Lang, Richert & Patch LLP given to an entering or current first-year law student from the Central Valley of California. To be eligible, candidates must have graduated from a high school in one of the following counties: Kern, Tulare, Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mariposa, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Tuolumne, or Calaveras. The scholarship is awarded solely on merit and not need. The firm will review applications and award the applicant most likely to achieve the same high standards of the scholarship’s namesake.
Applications must be postmarked by May 27, 2011 to be considered. Visit our scholarships page for the application.

Understanding the EFC in MyFinAid

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We’ve received multiple questions over the last few days regarding the information displayed on MyFinAid, such as the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Student Contribution (SC) amounts. To clarify, the EFC and SC amounts displayed on MyFinAid are those calculated by the main campus in order to determine your eligibility for loans. The law school’s financial aid office uses an alternate calculation, as described on our Grants page, to determine your eligibility for grants.

Estimated Graduation Dates for Entering Students

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Many entering students are finding that their Estimated Graduation date on MyFinAid shows 2012 instead of 2014. We believe this is due to a technical issue with the MyFinAid/BearFacts web system. Students who accept our offer of admission will have the opportunity to change this date through MyFinAid this summer.