The Solano Promise is a financial aid program that helps eligible students with enrollment fees and cash aid to help pay for books. It waives all fees—even small institutional fees—and provides students with a $200 textbook grant.
What are the eligibility requirements?
- Students must be California residents or AB 540 residents
- Students must not be eligible for the CCPG or Veterans' fee waiver
- Students must be enrolled full-time (12 or more units per term)
- Students must complete the FAFSA or CADAA
- High school dual enrollment coursework is not included when determining eligibility
- Current dual enrollment (high school) students are not eligible
- Students must have been enrolled less than two years at Solano
- Specifically, this means that they have attended 4 or fewer previous semesters (fall and spring—summer is not counted)
- If students have transfer units, the 4 or fewer semesters rule does not apply. Instead, students with transfer units must have attempted fewer than 60 cumulative (i.e., including the transfer units) units
How do I apply?
Submit a FAFSA or CADAA and you will be automatically applied.
Accessibility Services Center (ASC) students who cannot enroll full-time may be eligible for an exemption to the minimum 12 unit enrollment requirement. Meet with your ASC counselor to get an exemption. Ensure your counselor submits the exemption to the Financial Aid Office so your case can be manually reviewed.
Late start units do not affect the Solano Promise. You can receive the Solano Promise prior to your late start classes beginning.
How does it work? How do I get the $200 textbook grant?
We will award the Solano Promise to all eligible students around the time the semester begins and once per week after that. If you have previously paid fees that it waives, you will be reimbursed.
The $200 textbook grant will be sent as a paper check to the address we have on file. It can take a few weeks to arrive, so think of it as a reimbursement for your textbooks rather than the actual funds you will use to pay for them.
If the semester has started you're concerned that you don't see the Solano Promise on your Financial Aid Dashboard under the Offer tab, feel free to reach out to the Financial Aid Office for us to review your status. As always, remember that at no point will Solano drop you for non-payment of fees. Instead, you will simply be unable to register for future terms if you have an outstanding balance of $100 or more.