Modeling Changes to the Competitive Cal Grant Scoring Matrix

While some California college students are entitled to state Cal Grants, more than 300,000 applicants must compete for one of just 22,500 available “competitive” grants. With so many more eligible applicants than available grants, the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) relies on a scoring matrix to determine which applicants receive grant offers. At CSAC’s request, TICAS analyzed the impact of making changes to the scoring matrix to better target the awarding of grants to the most disadvantaged applicants. This memo outlines TICAS’ findings and recommendations.