Student Finance

Money matters. The financial resources to assist you and your Bruin are at your fingertips. From Financial Aid to BruinBill, any question you have about finances at UCLA can be answered through this section.

FERPA/3rd Party Access

Because of FERPA regulations, parents are not automatically granted access to student information. However, for those who still want to access their student’s information, such as grades, BruinBill, and more, these families can receive Third Party Access from their student.

BruinBill

All students are assigned a BruinBill account which records all charges and payments associated with registration (e.g. quarterly tuition and fees), along with other service charges (e.g. health insurance, Summer Session, housing, parking and even ASUCLA textbooks) that are assessed to students. Students must pay all charges in full by the 20^th of the month following the posting date of the charge. Click here to see fee details.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

The mission of the UCLA Financial Aid and Scholarships office is to help remove financial barriers and to assist students in meeting the rising cost of attendance at UCLA. The office will assist students in completing their application for financial aid, determining the level of need and offering financial aid to meet educational expenses. Visit the office's website for information such as filling out the FAFSA, Summer Aid, the types of financial aid available and more.

Financial Wellness Program

The mission of UCLA’s Financial Wellness Program is to empower Bruins to confidently navigate their finances in a way that supports their overall well-being. This program fosters financial literacy skills through workshops, individualized coaching and online educational efforts. Additionally, the office aims to encourage students to know who, when, and why to ask for help. Overall, the program centralizes and advocates for student economic support services on campus.

BruinCard

The BruinCard is the passport to life at UCLA. It serves as a debit card, a residence hall access card, a meal card, library card and much more. Click above for more information on the services offered by the BruinCard center, including a list of vendors that accept the BruinCard.

All students are eligible to apply for financial aid. The Financial Aid and Scholarships Office is available to assist students and families with the cost of attending UCLA. Financial Aid and Scholarships is located in room A-129 on the A Level of Murphy Hall and contact information can be found here.

Please note that your student’s financial and academic records are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The Financial Aid and Scholarships Office cannot release any information to a third party (including a parent) without the student’s permission. Access to financial records and information can be provided to parents or family members with Third Party Access. For more information on FERPA and steps to create Third Party Access, click here.

On MyUCLA under the “Financial” tab students may access their financial aid information, track document status, view the Electronic Financial Aid Notification (eFan) and submit summer aid applications. Note: A UCLA Logon ID and password are required.

Finally, peruse the FATV library for financial aid answers 24/7. FATV provides quick video answers to common financial aid questions.

FAFSA & Dream Act

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a form that families must complete annually to determine their eligibility for Federal Financial Aid, and it is also used by the UCLA Financial Aid Office to determine a family’s financial aid package on campus, which may include potential scholarships, grants, work-study and loans.

The California Dream Act application allows students enrolled in eligible California Colleges, Universities and Career Education programs to apply for state financial aid.

Your student should file a FAFSA or California Dream Act application each year in order to be considered for financial aid. All students may be eligible for some form of financial aid. March 2 is the deadline for priority filing each year; students who file by this date will be considered for maximum eligibility.

The Expected Family Contribution (EFC) figure is not an actual amount that you and your Bruin will be billed for and have to pay. It is an approximation of how much your Bruin and you may have to contribute throughout an academic year to cover your educational expenses.

Types of Aid

Scholarships

• Scholarships are need or merit-based awards that do not have to be repaid after graduation
• Entering students will be considered for scholarships based on the information provided on the application for admission
• Need-based scholarship processing is available once per year for continuing UCLA students from January 1 through March 2; the online application is located on the scholarship website
• Scholarship Resource Center: For information about available restricted, merit-based and need-based scholarships, students should visit the Scholarship Resource Center

Grants

• Grants are need-based awards that do not need to be repaid after graduation
• Students may receive federal or state grants. For more information on Cal Grants, click here.

Federal Work-Study (FWS)

• Students who qualify for Federal Work-Study can work up to 20 hours per week during the academic year and earn money for college costs through part-time employment in an on or off-campus job. For information on eligibility and applying for Work-Study positions, click here.

Loans

• Both parents and students can qualify for federal loans through the Direct Loan Program — there is a wide variety of loans with different interest rates and policies. For more information about loans, click here.

Blue + Gold Opportunity Plan

• UC’s Blue + Gold Opportunity Plan will cover educational and student services fees for California residents whose families earn less than $80,000 per year and qualify for financial aid. Blue + Gold students with sufficient financial need can qualify for even more grant aid to help reduce the cost of attending. For more information, visit the Blue + Gold Opportunity Plan online.

Mailing a Check

Check (personal check, cashier's check, money order, 529 Savings Plan) payments can be mailed to the cashier's office (Payment Solutions & Compliance) at the address listed below. Please allow up to two weeks for mailed check payments to reflect on your BruinBillonce received, provided all check payment information is accurately provided.

In order for a mailed check payment to be processed, it must:

• Be made payable to UC Regents
• Include the student’s full name
• Include the student's nine-digit university identification (UID) number
• Include the BruinBill account type (e.g. Regular Term Bill)
• Include the payment term (e.g. Fall Quarter 2021)
• Not exceed BruinBill fee amounts

Cashier's Office Mailing Address:

UCLA Payment Solutions & Compliance Office
Box 957089, 1125 Murphy Hall
405 Hilgard Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90095-7089

Summer Aid

In addition to completing the FAFSA, students must also complete the online Summer Financial Aid Application which can be accessed on MyUCLA under Finances and Jobs. Here are application deadlines for Summer Aid:

• Summer Travel and Global Internships: March 1 – early April
• UCLA Summer Session or College Summer Institute for Entering Students: April 1 – late August
• UC Cross Campus: open April 1 – mid-June
• College and Professional Summer Institutes: April 1 – early June

The OneBill Initiative launched in fall 2022, which now allows students to pay their tuition, housing, parking and transit fees on one BruinBill account (called the Regular Term Bill). Financial aid, scholarship and fellowship disbursements will immediately factor into the balance. BruinBill is still the billing platform, and summer session fees remain separate from other regular-term costs. Students must reenroll in automatic payments for the Regular Term Bill if they elect to continue them.

The financial resources to assist you and your Bruin are at your fingertips. Click to jump:

1. Paying Tuition
2. Bruin Pay Plan
3. Payment Deadlines
4. Fee Breakdown
5. Late Payments
6. Establishing Residency
7. Health Fees

Paying Tuition & Fees

All students are assigned a BruinBill account which records all charges and payments associated with registration, housing and transportation, as well as other service charges like health insurance that are assessed to students. Your student’s BruinBill is available to manage nearly 24/7; they just need to login to MyUCLA and click on BruinBill Accounts.

Fees are assessed monthly via BruinBill and payment is due on the 20th of the month following the posting date of the charge. If the 20th falls on a weekend or a holiday, the due date is the last business day prior to the 20th.

Each month, your Bruin will receive an automated e-Bill reminder to a designated email account (selected via the Settings section of MyUCLA).

If you are paying your student’s BruinBill account, you and your Bruin must set up Third-Party Access. Click here for more information on setting up this account. When creating a Third-Party Access account, your student can select which options to which they will permit access. Once you log in as a parent, you will also be able to elect to receive monthly e-Bill reminders.

• Once logged in to MyUCLA, click BruinBill Accounts (BAR) under the Financial section.
• Press Continue after reading important e-Bill notices.
• Here, you will see the BruinBill homepage.
• Payment can be made online, by check, or in person at 1125 Murphy Hall.

For any questions about fee payment, contact Student Accounts at (310) 825-9194 or Ask Student Accounts.
**Note that specific, personal information about your child’s account may be restricted via email or over the phone if your student has not granted you Third-Party Access.

BruinPay Plan

• UCLA’s BruinPay Plan (BPP) allows students and families to pay term fees in monthly installments.
• To participate in BPP, students must sign up on BruinBill during the pre-term enrollment period for each term they wish to participate. Third-party account logins cannot enroll in BPP.
• You will need a U.S. checking/savings account or a credit card to complete enrollment.
• Due to the automatic deductions associated with BruinPay Plan, the remaining payments for BPP will also be visible on BruinBill’s Auto Pay page. However, Auto Pay is also the name of a separate, twelve-part, automatic BruinBill deduction feature students may elect to use. Do not enroll in the Auto Pay feature if you are already enrolled in BPP – the Auto Pay feature will supersede your BruinPay Plan enrollment, withdrawing the total balance due on the designated Auto Pay dates instead of the BPP dates.

Limitations to enrollment

An account is ineligible for BPP if it:

• Is fully covered by financial aid
• Has an outstanding short-term loan (to lift this restriction, the balance must be paid off prior to the 19th day of the enrollment month)
• Has an unpaid, previous-term balance
• Has three returned check/eCheck payments
• Has one returned credit card payment
• Is enrolled for FEMBA/EMBA, Ed Leadership, or Masters of Financial Engineering programs
• Is a balance due for Summer Session/term
• Is in paid status

Payment Deadlines

Tuition and fee deadlines for the academic year:

• Fall quarter: September 20
• Winter quarter: December 20
• Spring quarter: March 20

Additionally, other fees such as the per-unit Instructional Enhancement Fee assessed after the fourth week of the quarter for College and Engineering students, Housing fees, and health-related charges will be posted throughout the quarter and also must be paid in full by the 20th of the month following the posting date of the charge.

Fee Breakdown

A breakdown of your student’s charges are available on the BruinBill each quarter, and here online.

For full descriptions of each fee, such as the Student Services Fee, Educational Fee and Course Materials Fee, click here.

Late Payments

UCLA will automatically drop a student’s courses if payment is not received on time. This can have both short-term and long-term consequences.

Establishing Residency

Students who are not permanent residents of California pay nonresident supplemental tuition in addition to fees assessed to all students. For a full description of what constitutes resident status, click here. Visit the Registrar’s Office online for detailed information about establishing residence for tuition purposes.

Health Fees

Students who have an alternate health care provider may waive SHIP (UC Student Health Insurance Plan) either quarterly or annually and will therefore see a deduction for this amount on the quarterly BruinBill. Click here for details on how to waive SHIP.

For questions about paying for or waiving SHIP, call the Arthur Ashe Student Health Center at (310) 825-4073, and select option 4.

The UCLA BruinCard serves as your student’s identification card, gym pass, library card, meal card, building access card and allows your student to pay for laundry in the residence halls. Additionally, many Bruins and families use the BruinCard as a convenient debit card for purchases on campus and from various vendors in the community.

Parents and students can deposit money on the BruinCard using machines stationed across campus or online. Many parents use the BruinCard to track a student’s spending on campus, for books, school supplies, food, etc. Additionally, students appreciate the ease of a single swipe, instead of carrying cash or additional debit or credit cards (and without overdraft fees!).

BruinCard features two deposit accounts: Easy Pay and Food Only. Funds can be deposited as Easy Pay, allowing purchases wherever the BruinCard is accepted, or Food Only, restricting usage of the funds for food purchase at on-campus restaurants only. NOTE: Cash on the BruinCard will remain on the card until six months after graduation. To close your student’s BruinCard debit account and request a refund of any remaining balance, please fill out a refund request form.

Visit BruinCard online with any questions, or call at (310) 825-2336. The on-campus BruinCard office for students is located at 123 Kerckhoff Hall.

The mission of UCLA’s Financial Wellness is to empower all Bruins to confidently navigate their finances in a way that supports their overall well-being. This program fosters financial literacy skills through workshops, coaching and online educational efforts. Additionally, they aim to encourage students to know who, when and why to ask for help. Overall, the program centralizes and advocates for student economic support services on campus.

View UCLA's Financial Wellness Resource guide here.

The UCLA Veteran Resource Center provides caring and personalized support to military-connected students (active-duty, reservist, National Guard, veteran, child/partner/spouse/ dependent of a veteran/active-duty service member). They help military-connected students succeed academically at UCLA by providing peer advising, tutoring resources, scholarships, employment opportunities and career development support, graduate school preparation support, guidance on educational benefits and financial support/resources, and community building and social activities.

Additionally, if you have personally served in the United States Armed Forces, your student may be eligible for financial support (free tuition, book and supplies funding, housing allowance, or a stipend) towards their education costs at UCLA. The UCLA Veteran Resource Center is your students’ first stop to find out how to get connected to campus and take advantage of all of the services provided to the military-connected student community.

For more information about the services that UCLA provides to the military-connected community, please reach out to veteran@saonet.ucla.edu and visit the website.

To submit documents that you have received from the VA or Cal Vet to UCLA, please complete this form.

California Veteran Fee Waiver

Eligibility: There are four plans under which dependents of Veterans may be eligible for this tuition waiver benefit.

Plan A:

• The unmarried child of a Veteran who is totally disabled due to service-connected disabilities or whose death was officially rated as service-connected is eligible. The child must be over 14 years old and under 27 years old to be eligible. If the child is a Veteran, then the age limit is extended to age 30;
• The spouse or Registered Domestic Partner (RDP) of a wartime veteran who has been rated as service-connected totally disabled is eligible. There are no age limit restrictions;
• The unmarried surviving spouse or RDP of a wartime Veteran whose death has been rated as service-connected is eligible. There are no age limit restrictions;
• Any dependent of any Veteran who has been declared missing in action, captured in the line of duty by hostile forces, or forcibly detained or interned in the line of duty by a foreign government or power is eligible.
• The Veteran must have served at least one day of active duty during a period of war as declared by the U.S. Congress, or during any time in which the Veteran was awarded a campaign or expeditionary medal. Concurrent receipt of benefits under Plan A and VA Chapter 35 benefits is prohibited. To receive benefits under Plan A, a dependent must sign an “Election To Receive College Waiver Benefits” statement acknowledging this fact. There are no income restrictions under this plan. To be eligible, the event which caused basic entitlement to benefits (i.e., the date the Veteran died of service-connected causes or the date the military or United States Department of Veterans Affairs (USDVA) rated the Veteran as totally disabled as a result of service-connected disabilities) must have occurred prior to the child’s 21st birthday.

Plan B:

• The child of a Veteran who has a service-connected disability, or had a service-connected disability at the time of death, or died of service-related causes is eligible. The child’s annual income, which includes the child’s adjusted gross income, plus the value of support provided by a parent, may not exceed the annual income limit. The current academic year entitlement is based upon the previous calendar year’s annual income. Under Plan B, wartime service is not required and there are no specific age requirements. Children are the only dependents eligible under this plan. There is no prohibition against receiving concurrent VA Chapter 35 benefits.

Plan C:

• Any dependent of any member of the California National Guard, who in the line of duty while on active service to the state, was killed, died of a disability resulting from an event that occurred while in active service to the state, or is permanently disabled as a result of an event that occurred while in the service to the state is eligible. Surviving spouses who have not remarried are also eligible.
• “Active service to the state,” for the purpose of this benefit, means a member of the California National Guard activated pursuant to Section 146 of the Military and Veterans Code. A copy of those orders pursuant to Section 146, not Section 143, must be furnished to establish eligibility.

Plan D:

Duration of benefits: This is dependent on which plan you qualify under. See the descriptions above for more information.

Maximum month of benefits: This benefit can be used for most undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools at UCLA. A list of the programs that this benefit cannot be used for (called self-supporting programs) can be found here.
How payments are made:

• Tuition (paid to the school): This benefit waives the mandatory system-wide tuition at UCLA.
• This benefit does not cover the expense of books, parking or room and board.

Application: Download an application, then go to your local County Veterans Service Office with the completed application and appropriate supporting documents.

Important Note: All applicants must meet UCLA’s California residency requirements.

For more information, please visit the California Veteran College Fee Waiver website.

Chapter 35: Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance Program (DEA)

Eligibility: An individual must be the son, daughter, or spouse of:

• A veteran who died or is permanently and totally disabled as the result of a service-connected disability. The disability must arise out of active service in the Armed Forces;
• A veteran who died from any cause while such permanent and total service-connected disability was in existence;
• A service member missing in action or captured in line of duty by a hostile force;
• A service member forcibly detained or interned in line of duty by a foreign government or power;
• A service member who is hospitalized or receiving outpatient treatment for a service connected permanent and total disability and is likely to be discharged for that disability.

Duration of benefits:

• For Children: May use benefits between ages 18 and 26 (there may be exceptions).
• For Spouses: 20 years from the service member’s date of death if they died on active duty, or 10 years from the date we determine they qualify or from the Veteran’s date of death (there may be exceptions).

Maximum months of benefits: 36 months

How payments are made: The VA pays the monthly amount directly to the student. The current monthly payment for full-time enrollment is $1,401.

Application: The application is available online here.

For more information, please visit the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance Program.

Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship (Fry Scholarship)

Eligibility: Children and spouses of service members who died in the line of duty after September 10, 2001.

Duration of benefits:

For Children:

• If you turned 18 or graduated from high school before January 1, 2013, you can get a Fry Scholarship until you’re 33 years old.
• If you turn 18 or graduate from high school after January 1, 2013, you can get a Fry Scholarship at any age over 18 or after you graduate (whichever comes first).

For Spouses: 15 years from the service member’s date of death (but spouses lose this benefit if they remarry).

Maximum months of benefits: 36 months

How payments are made:

• Tuition and fee payment (paid to the school): The VA covers the full in-state tuition costs for training at UCLA.
• Money for books and supplies (paid to the student): The VA cover up to $1,000 a year, divided up equally among the terms, for books and supplies.
• Monthly housing allowance (paid to the student): The VA base this amount on the local Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) for E-5 with dependents and pay it monthly.

Application: The application is available online here.

For more information about the program, please visit the Fry Scholarship website.