California Scholarships & Grants (2027–2028): Cal Grant, Middle Class Scholarship & California College Promise Grant Deadlines

Senior in the 2026–2027 School Year? The Aid Year You Need Is 2027–2028

California, and the FAFSA, name an aid year for the year the money gets spent, not the year you fill out the forms. If your student is a senior right now, you are working through the 2026–2027 school year on aid labeled 2027–2028. That is not a typo and you are not early. This page is the one you want.

The shortcut: take your student’s high school year and add one. Senior in 2026–2027 means every form, deadline, and award you are chasing says 2027–2028 on it.

Your move: open the FAFSA and look at the year printed at the top. If it says 2027–2028 and your student is a senior, you are in the right place.

Where the Cycle Stands Right Now (as of August 17, 2026)

• Class of 2027 (seniors): ✓ Your school’s GPA submission deadline is October 1, 2026, weeks away. ✓ The 2027–2028 FAFSA and California Dream Act Application open in the fall. ✗ Award amounts for 2027–2028 are not set yet; they follow the state budget in June 2027.
• Class of 2028 (juniors): ✗ Nothing to file. ✓ The opt-out notice is due to you by January 1, 2027. Read it, keep it, do not return it.
• Class of 2026 (freshmen starting fall 2026): ✓ Awards for 2026–2027 are being processed now. Confirm school of attendance in WebGrants before your first tuition due date.
• Adult and returning students: ✓ The community college entitlement runs on a September 2 deadline, not March 2, and it has no time-out-of-high-school limit.

How California State Aid Actually Works

There are two front doors, and almost everyone only walks through the first one.

• Door one: the application. The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) for students who can file it, or the California Dream Act Application, called CADAA, for students who cannot. One or the other, never both. This is what tells California your family’s financial picture.
• Door two: WebGrants 4 Students. This is the Commission’s own portal, separate from the FAFSA and separate from your college’s portal. It is where a Cal Grant is claimed, where your school of attendance gets confirmed, and where the state posts the tasks that are holding your money.

A third piece sits underneath both: the grade point average. For most California public school students the school sends it automatically. Nobody at the state will call you if it did not arrive.

Two terms you will see everywhere. A priority deadline is the date after which you are still allowed to apply but the money may already be committed. For California’s Cal Grant, March 2 is harder than that: it is the deadline, and the Commission has stated there are no appeals for applications filed after it. Cost of attendance, or COA, is the college’s official total for the year, tuition plus housing plus food plus books plus transportation. Your aid is capped at that number.

The Three Cal Grant Doors, and What Each One Pays

Cal Grant A takes a 3.0 grade point average. Cal Grant B takes a 2.0. Cal Grant C takes neither. More California families talk themselves out of a Cal Grant over grades than are ever turned down for them.

If your student cannot produce a usable grade point average, a test score can stand in for it. The Commission accepts an SAT, ACT, GED, TASC, or HiSet score in place of a GPA.

The award ladder, as set for the 2026–2027 aid year

These are the last figures California has published. Award amounts for 2027–2028 are set with the state budget in June 2027, so treat these as the shape of the award rather than a promise of the dollar. The eligibility rules and the deadlines below them do not float.

WASC is the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, a regional accreditor. Cal Grant C pays $1,094 at a community college, or $2,462 toward tuition and fees plus $547 for books and supplies elsewhere.

The supplement most families have never heard of

The income and asset lines, as set for 2026–2027

The line families trip over is not income, it is assets. For 2026–2027 the asset ceiling was $111,900 for dependent students and $53,300 for independent students. A family with a modest paycheck and a paid-off rental, a small business, or a large brokerage account can clear every income line and still be ineligible. Retirement accounts and the home you live in are generally not counted. If you are near that line, it is worth asking your college’s financial aid office how they read it before you assume the answer.

Your move: find your family size in the table. If you are under the Cal Grant B column, your student is very likely in line for both a Cal Grant and a federal Pell Grant, and the freshman-year gap in the green box above is the number to plan around.

The Reserve Trap: What Happens to a Cal Grant at a Community College

Start at a California community college with a Cal Grant A and the award does not pay you. It goes into reserve status for two academic years, waiting for you to reach a college that charges tuition.

This is not a penalty. Community college enrollment fees are already handled by the California College Promise Grant, so there is no tuition for Cal Grant A to pay. The award is being held for the transfer campus, where it is worth far more. But it means a family looking at a community college award letter sees nothing that looks like a Cal Grant, concludes the state turned them down, and stops maintaining the file. Two years later the reserve expires.

Cal Grant B behaves differently: it pays the access award at a community college, because that award is a living allowance rather than tuition. So two students at the same campus, one with an A and one with a B, see completely different award letters and neither of them is wrong.

Your move: if your student is starting at a community college, log into WebGrants in the first two weeks of the term and screenshot the award status and the school of attendance. You will want that record when you transfer.

Major California Programs

One application, the FAFSA or the California Dream Act Application, opens most of these doors at once. The ones that need something extra are marked.

The Two-Year Path Is the Cheapest Bachelor’s Degree in California, If You Keep the File Alive

California is built for this. Enrollment fees at a community college are waived for eligible students, and the state runs a second Cal Grant door specifically for transfers. What breaks is almost never the academics. It is the paperwork continuity across the handoff.

• The community college entitlement runs on September 2, not March 2. Students who were not awarded a Cal Grant at high school graduation but enroll at a community college get a separate entitlement window, with no limit on years out of high school. A college or community college grade point average can be used instead of a high school one, or a student can re-establish a GPA by completing 16 units with at least a 2.0.
• The transfer entitlement runs on March 2 and needs a 2.4 community college GPA, transfer in the same academic year as the award, and an age under 28 by December 31 of the award year. If the Commission flags your student as potentially eligible, there is a certification form (the G-6) that has to come back.
• The reserve clock is two years. A Cal Grant A held in reserve at a community college is waiting for a tuition-charging campus, and it does not wait forever.
• Cal Grant C is the career and technical door, on its own September 2 deadline, for programs as short as four months. If your student is heading for a certificate rather than a degree, this is the program to chase, and the March 2 date is not the one that applies.

Your move: file the FAFSA or CADAA every single year at a community college, even in a year where the award pays nothing. The reserve and the transfer entitlement both depend on an unbroken file.

California State Aid Deadlines

The dates that repeat every year

The Class of 2027 chain, with the years attached

How California Aid Stacks (and Why There Is Still a Bill)

State aid in California aims at tuition. Housing and food are almost always the gap. Grants stack with each other, but the total of all your gift aid cannot exceed the college’s cost of attendance. If it would, the college reduces something, usually loans first.

Both examples below are illustrative. They use realistic 2026–2027 figures to show the shape of a package, not a prediction of your award. Run your own numbers through each college’s net price calculator.

Common Ways California Aid Gets Lost

Every one of these is a process failure, not a student failure. They happen to strong students constantly.

Who Benefits Most

Low-income families

The most, by a wide margin. A federal Pell Grant, a Cal Grant, and campus grants stack, and at a UC the combination frequently covers systemwide tuition entirely. The risk is never income. It is the freshman-year Cal Grant B gap and the missing GPA.

Middle-income families

California is unusually generous here. A family of four earning up to $144,700 could still reach Cal Grant A for 2026–2027, and the Middle Class Scholarship ceiling for 2027–2028 is $262,000. If your instinct is that you earn too much, check the asset ceiling instead, because that is the line that actually stops people.

High-achieving students

California has no statewide merit scholarship. The state pays on need, not on grades, beyond the 3.0 and 2.0 thresholds. A strong transcript in California turns into money through colleges, not through Sacramento, which makes where your student applies the variable that matters.

Students who test poorly

California is one of the friendliest states in the country here. There is no test score requirement for any Cal Grant. A test score is only ever an alternative to a GPA, never a hurdle on top of one.

Adult and returning students

The community college entitlement is built for you. It runs on September 2, it accepts a college grade point average or a re-established one built from 16 units, and it has no limit on years since high school. Cal Grant C reaches training programs as short as four months.

First-generation families

Identical eligibility, much higher risk of losing it to process. The whole system reduces to four habits: file the application every year, confirm the GPA went, keep the WebGrants login where a parent can reach it, and update school of attendance whenever plans change.

Where to Look at California Colleges Next

The state pays the same Cal Grant amount to every student in a segment, so the college is the variable that actually moves your bill. What each campus adds on top is different everywhere, changes annually, and is documented on its own page rather than here, so there is one place to keep it accurate.

University of California campuses. Need-based aid, no automatic merit grid.

• UC Berkeley
• UCLA
• UC Davis
• UC Irvine
• UC Santa Barbara
• UC Santa Cruz
• UC Riverside
• UC Merced

California State University campuses. Lowest published tuition of the four-year systems, and campus aid that varies widely between them.

• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
• Cal Poly Pomona
• San Diego State University
• San Jose State University
• San Francisco State University
• CSU Long Beach
• CSU Fullerton
• CSU Sacramento

Private colleges with published, automatic merit. No essay, no interview, no committee. This is where the state’s predictable merit money lives.

• Saint Mary’s College of California
• University of the Pacific
• California Baptist University
• University of San Diego
• Pepperdine University
• Chapman University
• Santa Clara University

A different model entirely. Committee-awarded, or need-only with no merit at all.

• Stanford University
• University of Southern California
• Loyola Marymount University

Compare campuses side by side with the CRP Scholarship Search Tool, or read how to compare aid offers once the letters arrive.

Smaller California Programs Worth Checking

California State Aid FAQs

Does my senior file the 2026-2027 or the 2027-2028 FAFSA?

The 2027-2028 one. Aid years are named for the year the money is spent, not the year you fill out the forms. A student who is a senior during the 2026-2027 school year starts college in fall 2027, so every form, deadline, and award says 2027-2028 on it. The shortcut is to take your student’s high school year and add one. Seeing a later year at the top of the form does not mean you are early.

How much is the Cal Grant?

For the 2026-2027 aid year, Cal Grant A paid $15,588 a year at a University of California campus, $6,838 at a California State University campus, and $9,358 at a private nonprofit college. Cal Grant B paid a $1,648 access award in the first year, then the access award plus the Cal Grant A tuition amount from the second year onward. Cal Grant C paid $1,094 at a community college, or $2,462 for tuition and fees plus $547 for books elsewhere. Amounts for 2027-2028 are set with the state budget in June 2027.

Does Cal Grant B cover tuition in the first year?

No. In the first academic year Cal Grant B pays only the access award, a living allowance of $1,648 for 2026-2027, and nothing toward tuition and fees. Tuition and fee coverage begins in the second year, at the same rate Cal Grant A pays for that type of college. The one exception is the top 2 percent of new high school entitlement recipients, who receive both the access award and tuition in the first year. Families should budget the freshman year as though tuition is not covered.

What GPA do you need for a Cal Grant in California?

Cal Grant A requires a 3.0 high school grade point average, or a 2.4 college grade point average. Cal Grant B requires a 2.0. Cal Grant C has no grade point average minimum at all. There is no test score requirement for any Cal Grant, and a student without a usable grade point average can submit an SAT, ACT, GED, TASC, or HiSet score instead. Income and asset ceilings apply on top of the academic requirement.

Does my high school submit the Cal Grant GPA automatically?

If it is a California public high school or charter school, yes. California Education Code section 69432.9 requires those schools to electronically submit a Cal Grant grade point average for every graduating senior by October 1, unless the student or parent opted out. Districts must send that opt-out notice by January 1 of the student’s 11th grade year. Private, independent, and home school students, and students who moved in from out of state, are generally not covered and need to submit the G-4 GPA Verification Form themselves.

What is the Cal Grant deadline for 2027, and can it be extended?

March 2, 2027 for Cal Grant A, Cal Grant B, and the Middle Class Scholarship. September 2, 2027 for the community college entitlement, Cal Grant C, and foster youth applying at a community college. California extended the date once, for the 2025-2026 aid year, during a federal FAFSA disruption, and that was an exception rather than a pattern. For 2026-2027 the Commission stated there is no extension and no appeals for applications filed after the deadline.

Does California state aid cover housing?

Mostly no. Cal Grant A pays tuition and fees only, at every type of college. The Cal Grant B access award and the access awards for foster youth and students with dependent children are the main pieces of California state aid that reach living costs, and they are capped well below the cost of housing. For most families the housing and food gap is closed, if at all, by federal Pell Grants and by the college’s own grants, which is why the choice of campus matters so much.

Can you get both a Cal Grant and the Middle Class Scholarship?

Yes, they stack, but the Middle Class Scholarship is calculated last. It takes the college’s cost of attendance and subtracts all your other gift aid, including the Cal Grant, a student self-help contribution of $8,616 for 2026-2027, and a parent contribution if household income is over $100,000. Whatever remains is the award. A larger Cal Grant therefore produces a smaller Middle Class Scholarship. Both come from the same March 2 application, and Middle Class Scholarship awards are usually confirmed in late August.

Sources and Verification

Verified against the California Student Aid Commission on August 17, 2026. Award amounts shown are the figures the Commission published for the 2026–2027 aid year and are labeled as such throughout. Deadlines and eligibility rules apply to the 2027–2028 aid year. Nothing on this page is sourced from scholarship aggregator sites.

• California Student Aid Commission
• 2026-27 Cal Grant Comparison (form G-30), the source for all award amounts, deadlines, and award-cycle rules
• Cal Grant income and asset ceilings
• Middle Class Scholarship income and asset ceilings
• Cal Grant access awards, for the foster youth and dependent children supplements
• WebGrants 4 Students
• California Dream Act Application
• California Education Code section 69432.9, for the automatic GPA submission and opt-out requirements
• Our data methodology

Rules change. California sets award amounts with the annual state budget each June, and the Legislature adjusts eligibility more often than most states. Confirm any figure against the Commission before you make a decision on it, and write to leo@collegereadyparent.org if you find something out of date here.