I am a recent high school graduate who was accepted into USC but could not afford to bear full tuition as an international student (I am applying for my green card, so I was ineligible for aid). I now have to choose between two options: either attending a private four-year college in Chicago called Lake Forest or going to a California Community College.
The end goal is to transfer either back into USC or to a UC school. However, I was told that my chances of going to a good grad school would be better if I went to a small private school and did well as opposed to doing decent at a large school such as UCLA.
I am split between these options as they both have pros and cons and will cost about the same amount of money.
Can someone offer any advice? I do know that my chances of transferring into a California school is much greater if I do well at a CCC, but I was concerned that my chances of my eventual Graduate school acceptance would go down if I go to a large California school.
There are a couple of questions here. One is do you like Lake Forest? I’ve heard very good things about this school. It’s an underappreciated school, IMO. I’ve known people that they’ve offered good aid to. If you like the school, then that’s a plus. Chicago is a great city. Lake Forest is in a suburban area, but the City is close enough. The area in terms of weather is vastly different from SoCal. But the people are nice and as I said the arts and opportunities in Chicago are great.
A second question is: what do you plan to do for grad school? Depending on your interests, really it’s almost too early to think about this. For certain disciplines the school may make a huge difference, but for others, not so much. What you do in that school, as you mentioned already, is what’s important IMO.
In my experience, generally for grad school you will need: 1) excellent undergraduate record of grades and achievements; 2) movement during that time --or after your BA–towards some kind of career expertise. That’s a wordy way of saying, get an internship and/or jobs in the fields that you are interested in. If you’re interested in psychology, then work clinically or in a lab; for medicine, clearly you need premed courses plus clinical work; for law, you can do anything, from arts to government to Wall Street business, to advocacy work on gender issues or prisoner’s rights or go to another country and dig wells or tutor students in underprivileged communities in the US. The point is to develop some trajectory that you feel strongly about and in which you thrive. 3) Master your entrance exams for grad school: GRE, MCAT, LSAT. Try to get them in about the top 2% through practice for the top schools. You can start working on these exams at any time, but practice is what will get you to your score 4) try to figure out which grad school is right for you. This means looking not just at the subject matter, but also the people teaching and their specialties.
If I were you, I’d take a trip to Lake Forest or see if they’d set up a skype with some professorsthat you might want to work with, or even a good adcom. First check their website for who teaches there. What you’re looking to find out is how much opportunity you have for research work and/or internships. How do they help you prepare for the next step. My feeling is that Lake Forest may give you a chance to focus for 4 years on research without having to compete with grad students for similar positions. Lake Forest may give you one-on-one time with your professors more than a big school in CA. But you need to weigh that against if LF will offer you a course of study that interests you.
I guess this makes sense because the smaller the class size, the better chances of you getting close with your professor and making those personal connections for a more representative recommendation letter
Thank you so much for your answer @Dustyfeathers. The primary concern is that I will still not have my green card when i transfer out of CC two years from now. However, I’m also more concerned about how i happy I will be wherever I choose to go.
Unfortunately a visit to LF is not possible because I’m already in California to fulfill testing and counseling requirements, so I need to make this final decision by the end of this week.
Of course, going to LF means the conventional college experience – living in a dorm with friends, meeting people who are genuinely interested in you, a smaller, more close-knit sense of community, etc. But it’s not SoCal.
On the other hand, SoCal is great, but I fear that I will not have a great social life (since most of the students are there just to take classes then go home).
These other factors, while not as important is the most crucial factor of my academic, are definitely of consideration and are impacting my judgment quite a bit.
I just want to make a decision that I will least regret, whether that means being in the Cold mid-west with more potential to make friends or my heaven place of SoCal with less of a social life and academic surrounding.
Thanks again for helping me make this HUGE decision!
Grades are going to matter a lot more than recommendations, and graduate schools aren’t going to care whether you went to a large or small school for undergrad. (Contrary to what you’ve heard, no grad school is going to look unfavorably on an applicant who has a degree from USC or UCLA.) Go to whatever school you feel more comfortable at. That said, I’m not a big fan of people going to four-year colleges with the intention of transferring. It’s a huge waste of money, and while it may sound corny, part of the conventional college experience you seem to be looking for is going all in and developing a love for your school. I’d think that would be hard to do if you go to Lake Forest with the intention of transferring out.
Just from what little I’ve read on this thread, I have a gut feeling you’d do better spending four years at Lake Forest. Even though I went to grad school at USC, I went to a 3000-student school for undergrad and love the personal attention you get at small schools.
People who haven’t actually gone to graduate school tend to overestimate how hard it is to get into. Grad schools need paying students the same way businesses need paying customers. Most grad schools will be very happy to accept anyone who finished in the upper-half of their undergraduate class and can pay the tuition.
I don’t see a downside to attending Lake Forest. At worst, you won’t like it, return to CA where you can enroll at a community college with no further ado. At best, you’ll have a great experience on a nice campus near a big city.
However, the reverse isn’t true: if you attend a cc, it’s unlikely you could transfer to lake forest (and you 'd have lost the experience of first year living and growing with other freshmen.)
If you do choose to attend a California CC, be sure you work closely with a Transfer counselor even before you start your classes. Many classes that are available may not transfer to a UC.
At some impacted, popular CC’s, it’s hard to get enough transferable credits to qualify for a UC/CSU transfer after only two years. If you’re hoping to get back into USC, then it’s not as big of a problem.
Depending on the CC you’re targeting, that may be something that you’ll need factor into your decision.
Thanks for the responses, everyone. To answer some of your questions, 4 years at Lake Forest will be around 80k, whereas two years at CC will cost around 24k. After transferring, however, it could potentially cost more depending on if i have my green card or not. The green card situation is really complicated; my parents received theirs last summer, so I was forced to switch to an F-1 STATUS with an I20 to continue attending boarding school in Tennessee where I just graduated from.
I absolutely have to attend college this year to remain legally in the United States.
With that said, I have no doubt I will do well and be able to transfer to a UC or another private school as I graduated high school with a 4.0 and 8 AP classes taken. I did well, and I don’t see that changing depending on the location of my school.
I guess the big question is if it really matters if I go to CC then later transfer to a large university or go to LF, mostly for the financial reasons. If I go to UCLA for example, will my chances at grad school not be bigger than if I went to LF? (assuming I do just as well in both places)
@simba9 I don’t doubt I will succeed academically in both places; however, I’m also considering my mental health as well. I would be living with family in California as opposed to a dormitory in Lake Forest, but I absolutely love California, and it is my intention to stay and live and work here in the future.
My gut is telling me to stay in California, but I keep having second thoughts about Lake Forest. It’s decision time, and I can’t put it off longer, but I’m really struggling to make this decision.
Did you age out of your parents’ green card application? What bad luck. Things can take a really long time if that is your situation.
Four years at Lake Forest for 80k is not a bad deal. Can your family cover their share of the cost easily, or will it put them into a really bad situation? Run the numbers for two years of non-resident costs at a CCC followed by two years at a UC, and compare that to the cost for LF.
There also are real advantages to knowing now where you will be for four years. Depending on your possible field of study for grad school, four years in one place can be a lot more valuable than just two years at a UC/CSU. Please do remember that students get into really good grad programs every single year from places that you have never heard of. LF will not automatically keep you out of any place. Grad school admissions depends on your grades, GRE scores, statement of purpose, letters of recommendation, and any work/research/publications related to your expected graduate field.
If you’re still in school, your parnts’ green card should have automatically applied to you - I can’t imagine someone aged 21 would be allowed in a boarding school.
There may have been an administrative mistake, meaning it you’re under 21 you should automatically get a green card through your parents. Do you have a lawyer?
@MYOS1634@happymomof1 I was under my parents work visa, but they received their green cards through family application. I was 18 years old at the time, and I did not automatically receive mine. I have to now get invited by my parents to apply.
Other than that, the main reason I want to stay in California is to eventually transfer to a UC school, a private California school, or schools elsewhere in the US. I would much rather stay here in California than go to Chicago, however for many different reasons including but not limited to a huge cultural diversity here, warm weather, friends and family around, as well as feeling culturally at home – I’m Korean-American.
Your immigration lawyer may be able to give you a best estimate for the time necessary to get your green card. That will give you a notion about whether or not you are likely to have it before you graduate from college. With that information, you and your family will be able to look at your educational options and determine which of them are the most cost effective over all.
If Lake Forest is no more expensive than a CCC right now, there is nothing wrong with enrolling for the fall, and seeing how things go. If you would be unhappy there, you could transfer to a CCC, and then eventually to a UC or CSU.