Within California, there is widespread understanding and consensus that college affordability is a challenge that needs to be addressed. Along with this consensus on the nature and implications of California's college affordability problems, there is also emerging agreement about how to tackle it. While this convergence can form the backbone of a new financial aid approach for California, some key questions need further exploration to fill in specific policy priorities and details. To explore these questions and continue advancing policy discussions about how best to reform financial aid in California, The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) engaged higher education researchers to explore specific policy questions related to aid reform. Their working papers are published in this compendium. The aim was not to establish a definitive way of approaching any one of the topics, but rather to support the continued evolution of the policy conversation and keep it moving towards identifying the most equitable solutions. The first group of papers explores essential components required for the state to make a true affordability promise to all Californians and investigates what it might cost to do so. The second group of papers grapples with how the state can better communicate with students and families about the financial aid available to them and how to ensure that they have the support they need to navigate the process from application through disbursement to repayment. Collectively, these papers persuasively articulate three imperatives: the need to put students and families at the center of reform; to close equity gaps in access, affordability and success; and to fund student financial need at adequate and predictable levels. This report includes the following chapters: (1) Adjusting COA and EFC for Living Costs (Robert Kelchen); (2) Debt Free College and Student Out-of-Pocket Costs: The Case of California (Charlie Eaton); (3) Creating an Affordable College Model for California (Amy Rose); (4) Increasing Students' Awareness and Understanding of Financial Aid (Su Jin Gatlin Jez); (5) Increasing the Take-Up of Cal Grants (Elizabeth Linos, Vikash Reddy, and Jesse Rothstein); and (6) Building Capacity to Improve Financial Aid Administration (Nicholas Hillman).