More than 9,000 of the about 9,800 expected Middle Class Scholarships this year have been disbursed.
More than 9,000 of the about 9,800 expected Middle Class Scholarships this year have been disbursed.
Campus is decreasing delays to Middle Class Scholarship, or MCS, disbursements through the California Student Aid Commission, or CSAC.
The CSAC offers financial aid scholarships for students across the state, including Cal Grant and the MCS, the latter of which was started in 2013. The CSAC distributes scholarships through funding by the state budget, and award amount is determined by factors such as cost of attendance, family income and the number of students eligible for the scholarship, according to the CSAC website.
In previous years, the MCS was reported to have delayed disbursements — past fall tuition deadlines in several cases — but improvements have been made to distribute payments this fall semester, according to campus spokesperson Lindsey Michels.
“This year, the first MCS payments went out on 8/23/2024—almost two months earlier than last year. Approximately two-thirds of MCS recipients received their awards by the fall fee payment due date,” Michels said in an email. “We’ve awarded $28.2M in the MCS and have disbursed $14.04M for the fall semester.”
No delays have occurred in the disbursing of Cal Grants, Michels added.
According to Michels, 9,800 campus students are expected to receive an MCS this year, 9,000 of which have already been disbursed.
“We have received inquiries from students about their Middle-Class scholarship and we are working as quickly as possible to actualize awards for the ~800 students who have not received their fall award,” Michels said in the email.
There may also be ongoing adjustments to the aid students are expected to receive, according to campus’s financial aid website: An MCS is reduced if students are enrolled in fewer than 12 units five weeks into the semester.
Campus sophomore Danielle Amador qualified for the MCS during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and noted the improvements to scholarship disbursement timelines this fall.
“Around week three of the (fall 2023) semester was when they notified me that I was eligible for (the MCS), and then around month one or two it was disbursed,” Amador said.
This fall, Amador said, her MCS was disbursed the same time as her other scholarships.
Additionally, she has been notified via an email that she should expect to receive her next semester’s payment approximately Jan. 13.
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