CalCentral explained: the “My Finances” tab
In addition to bringing fresh faces and renewed academic vigor, the start of a semester usually entails new charges in CalCentral. CalCentral is UC Berkeley’s comprehensive student portal. It’s the dashboard that students and their delegates use for all of the nitty-gritty: enrolling in classes, updating personal information, and — of course — paying the bills.
The aim of this blog is to help you navigate the “My Finances” tab of CalCentral. This tab is where you’ll make payments toward your tuition, but it’s also where you’ll find your financial aid offer, confirm your outside aid, and access useful financial aid resources. There are four sections within My Finances: Tuition Stability Plan, Billing Summary, Financial Aid & Scholarships, and Financial Resources. I cover all of them in detail below.
Tuition Stability Plan
This section of My Finances indicates what Tuition Cohort you or your student is assigned to. Under UC Berkeley’s Tuition Stability Plan, all incoming undergraduates (both first-year and transfer students) are assigned to a Tuition Cohort based on the time of their first enrollment at UC Berkeley. The cost of tuition and other mandatory fees are frozen for your given cohort until you graduate or for up to six academic years. Freezing mandatory fees help students and their families understand the relative cost of receiving an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley.
Note that for graduate students, tuition is still adjusted annually based on inflation.
The Tuition Stability Plan section states which Tuition Cohort you belong to.
Billing Summary
The Billing Summary section is where you’ll make payments toward tuition and other mandatory fees. There are multiple parts to this section and I’ve broken down all of them below.
- Due Now: What mandatory fees, such as tuition, are due at present. Also includes Overdue charges.
- View Transactions: A blue arrow that takes you to a summary of all your transactions, including Unpaid Balance and Payments and Aid. Payments that are not yet due will have a yellow circle and the due date next to them.
- Not Yet Due: What mandatory fees are due in the future.
- Total Unpaid Balance: The total of your Due Now and Not Yet Due charges combined.
- Make Payment: A blue button that links to UC Berkeley’s commerce.cashnet student payment portal, where you can make payments towards mandatory fees, as well as view your transactions, statements, and account details.
- View PDF Statement: Links to the Overview tab of your payment portal, from which you have to navigate to the Statements tab, then click “View” to open a given statement, or click “Save” to download a PDF of the statement.
You’ll receive courtesy reminder emails that charges are being billed to your account within the next few days, but be sure to regularly check this section of your CalCentral My Finances so you don’t miss a payment. Missed payments may result in a hold being placed on your CalCentral account.
The Billing Summary section is where you’ll find charges due to your account and make payments.
Financial Aid & Scholarships
The Financial Aid & Scholarships section is where you’ll view your financial aid package and other related information. It has several subsections that can be a bit confusing to decode, but that’s what this blog is for.
Aid Year: A toggle button that allows you to choose your aid year. It is set to the current year by default, but you can switch between different years to see what your fees and aid looked like at the time, since your financial aid package may change each year.
Estimated Cost of Attendance: An estimate of how much one academic year at UC Berkeley costs for you.
This number is an estimate established through answers in student surveys and research. It can increase or decrease based on a myriad of factors — whether you enroll in SHIP, whether your professors provide all course materials for free, etc. — but typically includes:
- Tuition and fees (assuming full-time attendance)
- Books, course materials, supplies, and equipment
- Living expenses (food and housing)
- Miscellaneous and personal expenses
- Transportation
- Health insurance (which can be waived if you’re enrolled in equivalent medical insurance that meets the University’s requirements)
Funding Offered: My personal favorite section, because this is where the dollar amounts of aid from the University and from outside scholarships will appear, reducing your overall tuition. There are subsections which you can toggle open to view what type of aid you’ve received. UC Berkeley Financial Aid & Scholarships explains the different types of aid in detail, and I’ve included a brief description here.
- Gift Aid: Comprising scholarships and grants, Gift Aid is awarded from federal, state, and University funds based on financial need and academic merit. It does not need to be repaid.
- Outside Resources: Aid received from third parties, such as scholarship contests and organizations unaffiliated with the University. When your scholarship organization says they’ve sent your award over to UC Berkeley, this is the section where you’ll double check that.
- Waivers: Expenses that are covered through waivers. If you waive the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) because you are already enrolled in an approved private health insurance, then the dollar amount of SHIP will show up in this section and be deducted from your tuition.
- Note: The timing of when you waive out of SHIP can impact the financial aid you receive. For example, if you are granted a SHIP waiver after your aid has disbursed, your awards may be reduced to account for the SHIP waiver. Refer to SHIP FAQs to learn more.
- Loans: A sum of money you borrow from a lender and pay back over time, with interest added. Subsidized loans are available to undergraduate students who demonstrate financial need and the U.S. Department of Education pays the interest on them. Unsubsidized loans are available to both undergraduate and graduate students regardless of need and the student is responsible for paying the interest on them. CalCentral will indicate which type of loan is available to you.
- Note: You may be able to convert any federal loans into work-study funds.
- Work-Study: A part-time paid campus job, the salary of which goes toward your tuition. A dollar amount will appear next to work-study if you are eligible for it. We have several blogs about how to apply to work-study positions. Writing blogs like this for Berkeley Life was initially a work-study job for me, and I’m so grateful I found it.
Financial Aid & Scholarships details the types of financial aid available to you. My first year at Cal, I received $4,700 from outside resources through essay-based scholarships.
Financial Resources
This is a helpful compilation of resources to help you understand and manage your finances. You can enroll in UCB Direct Deposit, which allows you to electronically receive disbursements to your bank account from UC Berkeley. You can also view your Tax 1098-T Form, which is issued by UC Berkeley to students and which you may be able to use to claim a tax credit. Delegate Access links to your Student Profile, where you can add “delegates,” or individuals who can act on you or your student’s behalf to pay bills, view your academic information, and more. Delegates are typically your guardians. You can add funds to your Cal 1 Card debit account to pay for select services on campus, such as printing at some libraries. You can also check on your meal plan balance.
Financial Resources provides quick access to various resources, including your Direct Deposit account and 1098-T tax form.
Conclusion
I hope this blog offered you some insight into the comprehensive resource hub that is the My Finances tab of your student’s CalCentral dashboard. Before we part, I offer one last piece of advice about My Finances: Enroll in UCB Direct Deposit! It eliminates the hassle of paper checks if you work a work-study job and in the event that you receive a reimbursement from the University.
Good luck this semester, Golden Bears!
Nina Takahashi, Class of 2026, is majoring in film & media and minoring in Japanese and creative writing. Cover photo by Student Affairs Communications.
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