I’m a senior in high school and I’m last minute looking for colleges to apply to in California since it’s my home state. I’m hoping to go to medical school in the future so I wanted a college that would be helpful in preparing me for that, but I also have to consider finances because I have a single mom and our income is only around $30k. My unweighted GPA is a 4.0, and my only SAT score is from the new one, which is a 1350. I don’t know much about any colleges, but I was hoping for one with a less competitive and with a more community-like atmosphere. Any advice would be great. Thank you all so much!
The deadline for UC’s and CSU’s was Nov 30th, so you are looking for Private schools that give good financial aid and merit? University of La Verne, University of Redlands, University of San Diego, St Mary’s and Chapman might be possible. Run the Net Price calculators on each school to get an idea of costs. Did you apply to the UC’s and Cal States?
Santa Clara
I started UC applications, but I couldn’t really decide if I really wanted to apply, and I was really busy around November so I ended up missing the deadlines. My mom wanted me to write an appeal to Davis, but I wasn’t really sure how effective that would be.
I seriously doubt an appeal would work since you are given from August (when the application opens) to November to get your application submitted. Since you are low income, you missed a great opportunity. You can either look for private schools that offer good FA and merit aid, consider taking a gap year and reapply next year or consider community college and transfer.
Santa Clara is not that generous with financial aid. You might want to add Occidental and Pitzer to the list.
The UCs are impacted. Trying to get in on an appeal, with an incomplete application, at a full campus won’t work. Try the privates who are still accepting. Don’t miss those deadlines.
I believe that UC Merced will be accepting freshman applications until January 3rd. This is a great option for low income individuals.
@soundecisive @uclahopefull is correct. You can still apply to UC Merced.
Go to https://admissions.universityofcalifornia.edu/applicant/login.htm The website is down from 10 pm until midnight tonight though.
A few of the CSUs are still open for frosh application as well: http://www.csumentor.edu/Filing_Status/
However, if none of them or UCM are suitable for you, then you may have to take a gap year (e.g. working to earn some money, no college course work after high school graduation) and reapply during the UC/CSU application period next year. An unweighted 4.0 HS GPA, assuming a rigorous course selection including the a-g requirements, is likely to result in a decent selection of UCs and CSUs to choose from (and they tend to have decent in-state financial aid – check the net price calculators).
You can also try the community college and transfer route. UCs and CSUs take lots of transfer students at the junior level. College courses and grades are what counts then; high school grades and test scores are not used, other than for some low level requirements to fulfill, and AP scores that may satisfy some requirements. Use http://www.assist.org to check which community college courses you need for your target campus and major.
It is getting late, but some full ride merit scholarships may still be available:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
On the above, verify on school web sites. You probably need full ride, not just full tuition.
Look into what @ucbalumnus is saying. If you are doing well in high school then I am sure you’d do well at community college, allowing you to transfer to UC Davis. Additionally, you’d save lots of money by choosing the CC route. Think about it
Sometimes a community college is actually the more expensive route - for a high achieving low income student. From a study done in 2013 by Bay Area Consumer Checkbook: https://www.checkbook.org/san-francisco-bay-area/Where-to-Get-Help-Estimating-College-Costs
“According to their calculators, for a family with $50,000 in earnings and no assets, the estimated net costs (including costs the family might pay with loans and work-study) after taking into account government- and school-issued grants are $71 at Stanford, $7,178 at UC Berkeley, $8,257 at Scripps College, $10,193 at DeAnza Community College, $10,678 at San Jose State, and $19,551 at University of San Francisco. You read that correctly: For this family, it would cost far less to send its student to Stanford than to a community or state-run school, and attending privately run Scripps would cost less than attending DeAnza or San Jose State. It would also be far more expensive to attend USF than any of the other five schools in this comparison.
Middle-income families can also benefit greatly by comparing schools’ net costs. For a family that earns $100,000 and has $50,000 in savings and two children attending college, estimated net costs for a first-year student are $4,971 at Stanford, $10,392 at UC Berkeley, $11,619 at DeAnza, $14,187 at Scripps, $17,850 at San Jose State, and $25,466 at USF.”
Re: #10
The problem is, Stanford is a super-reach (for everyone), and the OP missed the deadlines for most of the UCs and CSUs. Of course, the OP can apply to Stanford, but should realize that the chance of admission is very small. Scripps may be a more realistic possibility for admission if the OP is female, but cannot be counted on as a sure thing.
@ucbalumnus Yes, I’m not necessarily recommending that the OP apply to Stanford - but it’s a common misconception that the community college route is always the least expensive one - for a low income high achieving student. At this point, UC Merced, or a private liberal arts college that offers good aid, such as Scripps, may be the best options.
If you want to do medicine, you need to have some information about not just colleges but also medical schools.
You seem to suggest that you only consider colleges in CA. Why? I am not questioning your college preference or considerations. I am asking whether you have considered or investigated those opportunities outside CA. If you have not done so, you might miss out a lot of opportunities that could be the fittest to you. Of course, the fittest one may reside in CA.
You may change your major and professional path down the road, unconditionally with a high probability just like many others. Now let us assume that you are actually heading toward a medical profession, how can you afford the cost of a medical education given your family’s low income. There are a variety of ways to do it, and a common way is to rely on need-based grants from medical schools. What are these medical schools? You can see the list below: https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/threads/list-of-schools-with-significant-need-based-aid.1119409/
Now assume that you are indeed trying to rely on need-based grant to fund most of the medical school costs, you should note that the majority of these medical schools are well endowed and are private elites. It is known that private elite medical schools tend to take students from private elite colleges, and private elite medical graduates tend to earn prestigious, big-name residence placements.
The information above is not what you asked for in your post. But given that you are late in college application, and seem not to equip with enough application information, I hope my 2 cents can give you something to think about.
There are a lot of good suggestions above. I particularly like the idea of a gap year, or some people call it post graduate in those prep schools. Use an additional year to make some money to improve your family’s finance; e.g., pay off existing debt, is an honorable thing to do. Meanwhile, improve your SAT. Given your family income background and high GPA, with enough SAT and good essays, you may be able to get in a full ride need-based college that may prepare you even better for a need-based medical school. Note that many of these need-based colleges are far away from CA. There is a big world out there waiting for you.
I know that I am not in any position to say the following, but please do not put too much emphasis on your preference toward college atmosphere. Your focus should be on affordability/finance. It is tough to be a kid from a low income family (I was one), and you need to be tough. Good luck.
I believe UNR, Loyola Marymount and USD are all accepting applications…
You might consider some lesser known schools in CA that would likely shower you with merit aid: consider California Lutheran (near LA) and University of the Pacific (near SF).
In both cases, the schools named are fairly long drives to the cities named. “Near” may be a misnomer if it is intended to indicate convenient access to the city, particularly without a car.