Financial aid questions answered

Anne De Luca, associate vice chancellor for admissions and enrollment, is back with answers to questions from students and parents concerning financial aid at UC Berkeley. Last week De Luca kicked off the conversation with a financial-aid video primer through the new “Sproul Plaza” app on the campus’s Facebook page.

Like its namesake, “Sproul Plaza” the app is a place for members of the Berkeley community to gather, have their voices heard and hear what others have to say. It gives campus leaders and subject-area experts the opportunity to present video commentary and information, and then seek questions, feedback and discussion. The app allows community members to pose and vote for follow-up questions and comments they would most like to have addressed; presenters then respond with videotaped replies to the top-ranked queries.

The comments and questions for De Luca that received the most votes were in the following areas:

• UC Berkeley’s new middle class access plan (MCAP) and college affordability in general
• How financial aid accounts for students’ living expenses and off-campus housing
• Financial aid for out-of-state students
• Financial aid for international students
• Financial aid for independent students
• UC Berkeley’s Fall Program for Freshmen (FPF)

You can view De Luca’s initial video and subsequent answers here on the NewsCenter; but to post comments or suggestions for future topics, you’ll need to use the app’s interactive features, which can be accessed only through UC Berkeley’s Facebook page.

Accessing the “Sproul Plaza” app is easy: be sure to first “like” the UC Berkeley Facebook page, and then just click on the “Sproul Plaza” icon in the menu bar (below the cover photo and just to the right of “Photos”)

The transcript of De Luca’s responses to the questions is posted online.