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Thoughts on the Movie "Lady Bird" and the Portrayal of the College Search Process
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Replies to: Thoughts on the Movie "Lady Bird" and the Portrayal of the College Search Process
But still sigificantly less than it would be today.
UC tuition was under $5,000 a year.
The larger point from this thread remains though: as much as in real life most of us would never advise financing college through HELOC, the amounts we're talking about aren't nearly as devastating as today. Such gestures didn't have the same pact then than they do now.
Barnard met full need even in 2002 and with one unemployed parent and one middle class parent, the family contribution wouldn't be terribly high (although clearly no one's saved for it and it can't be paid off salary due to the unemployment).
A UC graduate who doesn't do anything with his degree would be in a vastly different place when tuition was about one third of what is is today, seeing how salaries have not tripled in the past 15 years.
When I said it cost $700 for each, my youngest erupted, "Did you say HUNDREDS?!?!?" Which pretty much sums up the devastating rise in the cost of college.
I did love the portrayal of that age and the relationships that Lady Bird negotiates as she goes through a very challenging transition, one that pretty much all young people go through, regardless of their path. It was hard for my parents too, and they had no experience with college. My goals were different, and that's hard too. There were evolving friendships and romantic relationships, lots to balance, and the certainty of mistakes and embarrassments, all while figuring out who you are. I thought the movie captured some of that in a real way. I remember feeling some of what Lady Bird felt and, more recently, having some of the same emotions as her parents. It is a coming-of-age story, one right plop in the middle of the college process, which is what many on this site have in common.
Yes, I coach multiple UC/CSU applicants every year. If the movie was meant to suggest that LB applied and was admitted to 4-year California publics besides Davis, it did a poor job of conveying that. I saw a movie telling the truth about many common rookie mistakes, including painting yourself into an admissions corner and falling for a gay guy in your theater class. Oh, Lady Bird, I feel your pain. I've been there and done that on both counts.
Barnard is wonderful about posting stats online -- so here's a printout showing tuition back to 2005-2006:
Tuition: $29,364
Total COA: $41,802
If you are mathy, then the total COA seems to have been going up on average $2500 per year, with roughly $2000 yearly attributable to tuition. So extrapolating back I'd guess the that three years earlier, for 2002-2003, I'd guess around $23K for tuition, $34K for overall COA.
I know from my own records that NYU costs were pretty much on par with Barnard -- though a little tricker because NYU of a wider range of housing options.
Honestly, have you read the financial aid threads? This is a very common financing vehicle -- look at the PLUS loan thread.-- which is largely a discussion of HELOC vs. PLUS. Plenty of CC families do it and also advocate that route for others.
There is a difference between "applied" and "admitted". I don't know where the mom would have taken LB on their college tour but to California public campuses somewhat farther afield than UCD -- and very hard to believe that she wouldn't have applied to multiple campuses-- again it's just a matter of checking a couple of extra boxes on a form. But it's quite plausible that from the campuses she chose, UCD was the only one that admitted her.
Despite her grousing I think that without post-waitlist admission, Lady Bird would have gone off to UC Davis -- just as I am sure my own daugher would have gone to UCSB or UCSC despite the fact that she showed no interest whatsoever and refused to even consider visiting. Bottom line, that would have been the choice she had vs. living at home and commuting. That's real life too, especially here on CC -- students are always faced with the disappointment of not getting into or not being able to afford their dream colleges, and ending up attending their safeties. So I think its simplistic to take statements made by movie characters literally -- rather, the character's words reflected their emotions at the time.
https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/stu12_tuition_and_fees_4.27.17.pdf
Also, I know CC is a college admission site, but this movie isn't really about college admission - it simply one aspect of the main character's life.
Actually, having watched the movie in a certain college town near Sacramento, people in the area love the movie. A lot. The jokes about her not wanting to go to UC Davis got big laughs in theaters, and everyone was excited to see places they recognized in Sacramento. It's easy to laugh about the "cow town" stereotype while sitting in the hip artsy movie theater in said town. In the end, Lady Bird comes to appreciate Sacramento, as many of us around here do.
That said, since it was Thanksgiving weekend, I'm betting that most of the audience were not college students. I love this area and could see myself living here long-term, but I went to college in a big city and am really, really glad to have had that experience.