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College-border students in California have just one more week to file their founded on financial aid application to be considered for some important types of rank and university aid for the 2010-11 school year.

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Many students testament find it easier to fill out the online version of the Free Application on account of Federal Student Aid this year thanks to the addition of jump logic, which skips questions that are deemed irrelevant based on answers to prior questions.

Students must fill out this application, known as the FAFSA, to have ~ing eligible for federal aid such as Pell grants, work study and guaranteed loans. Many states and schools exercise the same application to dole out their own financial aid.

California residents who power of choosing attend a public or private college in California and want to be considered for a first-time Cal Grant must file the appeal by March 2.

These grants go to undergraduate students from shabby- and some middle-income families. They cover systemwide fees at common universities (up to $4,026 at California State University and $10,302 at UC campuses). Students attending a peculiar university can get up to $9,708 toward tuition. Some students can get an additional $1,551 for books and living expenses.

Students mould fall below certain income and asset ceilings that vary by parents and children size and type of grant. A dependent student from a lineage of four with up to $80,200 in income and not so much than $62,000 in assets might get at least a subordinate grant.

To get a Cal Grant, students also must verify by March 2 that they have a certain minimum grade point average. Many high schools are automatically verifying GPAs for all graduating seniors, unless students should check.

Students who attend a Cash for College workshop before March 2 and satiate out an application and a survey will be entered in a drawing to win an additional scholarship worth $1,000. For details and to attain to a workshop near you, go to calgrants.org and click without ceasing Cash for College.

Many universities also encourage or require students to supply with an incumbent out the form by March 2 (earlier in some cases) to have ~ing considered for institutional aid.

“We always say, file by March 2 to be sure to get the maximum package,” says Cheryl Resh, financial speed director at UC Berkeley.

Despite federal efforts to simplify the industry, it can still be challenging, even for financial aid experts of that kind as Diana Fuentes-Michel, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, which administers Cal Grants.

“It’s a little easier this year, moreover it’s still daunting,” says Fuentes-Michel, who recently helped her 17-year-antique daughter fill out the form.

Thanks to skip logic, many students command have to answer fewer questions this year, but some colleges worry they won’t obtain all the information they need.

For example, a student whose parents and children has less than $50,000 in adjusted gross income and is eligible to file a 1040A or 1040EZ tax return is no longer required to reveal assets on the federal form. However, without that information, financial relieve. offices don’t know whether the student exceeds the asset bound for a Cal Grant, says Yvonne Gutierrez-Sandoval, associate director of fiscal aid at Pitzer College and president of the California Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Fuentes-Michel says she is seizure this and similar questions to the student aid commission. “I chance of the desired end to get an answer to campuses in writing in the next five to six weeks,” she says.

David Levy, director of fiscal aid at Scripps College, says he’s getting a lot of questions this year inasmuch as the worksheet that students fill out before tackling the application was besides simplified. The new worksheet, he says, doesn’t prepare students towards all the questions they will encounter, and as a result, it’s pique some families longer to fill it out.

Another question he’s getting more often is how to explain special economic circumstances. To procreate aid for 2010-11, students use information from their family’s 2009 censure return. That information might look too rosy if a parent recently lost a job, but there’s no way to explain it without interrupti~ the form.

Levy encourages these students to contact the financial assist offices at schools where they have applied and explain the locality, even before they have been admitted, so “colleges can make a in addition informed decision” when offering aid.

“We want to accept the lineage in their current financial state,” he says, but his office bequeath ask for verification such as termination letters or confirmation of unemployment benefits.

Net Worth runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. E-post Kathleen Pender at kpender@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on serving-boy D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle