<p>Transferring to UW is not an option. I’ve been through this with my own student (with stellar GPA, SATs, resume). They are VERY upfront that admission priority to transfer students goes to 1) community college students and (not or) 2) students with 90+ credits. They will make an occasional exception if there are extenuating circumstances (unhappy at your current school is doesn’t fit that criteria) or if the applicant has some kind of hook. </p>
<p>OP: I don’t know if this is feasible or not, but if your daughter withdraws from Pepperdine now, and takes a gap year she will technically be a freshman applicant. During that year, she might be able to find some schools that are a better match, but still financially feasible.</p>
<p>Well, really, going to a California CC costs so much less than paying for any other education choice–even out of state-- I’m surprised at the above reaction. 15 units = ~$4600.00/semester. That’s less than $10 thousand for one year. Rents run about $850 for one room in a 2-bedroom apartment (Culver City area which is safe and close and hip). This is much less $$ than attending UCLA out of state, and less even than attend UW instate. Right?</p>
<p>[How</a> to Apply - UCLA Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/applying.htm]How”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/applying.htm) indicates that you can apply as a freshman if “you have graduated from high school but have not enrolled in a regular session at any college or university. You cannot disregard your college record and apply as a freshman.” That implies that enrolling at Pepperdine, even if one withdraws before completing any college credit, may disqualify her from frosh application to UCLA. One can always ask, but one should not be optimistic about the answer.</p>
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<p>That would require careful checking of each possible school to see how it defines a frosh applicant. If having merely enrolled at Pepperdine, even if one withdraws before completing any college credit, is a disqualifier at a given school, then that particular school would have to be applied to as a transfer.</p>
<p>Given that the UCLA web page uses the term “enrolled”, rather than “completed [any credits]”, I would not be so sure. (Other UC campuses use the same wording.)</p>
<p>texaspg: Well, that’s been debated at length on this forum. There are instances where I think it would be worth the price, but every student/family needs to make that decision for themselves. I was basically focusing on the question of how to get her daughter back into UCLA given her existing situation. </p>
<p>ucbalumnus: That’s a good point. Hopefully it is not a hard and fast rule so that the instant someone SRI’s they become a non-first-time freshman. It’s only been 6 weeks so if there is a good reason, they might bend the rules a bit. Or, she might still fall within their definition of first-time freshman applicant. If it were me, I probably would NOT state buyer’s remorse as my primary reason for leaving Pepperdine.</p>
<p>madbean, are you sure about the $1,700 for a two bedroom apartment in Culver City? I was thinking that’s low, except for the most high-crime areas.</p>
<p>Also, SMCC is on the quarter system, so $4725/quarter, $14,175/year for tuition, assuming 15 credits/quarter. </p>
<p>Apartment rental needs a 12 month lease. Even assuming $850/month would be possible, add utilities for $12,000/year. </p>
<p>Add food, travel, books, living expenses, and you’re looking at close to $35 - 40,000/year for a city college.</p>
<p>I work at a community college. I am a huge proponent of them, especially for students who are not quite ready to leave home or attend a four-year university for other reasons. However, I would recommend attending one in one’s home state for the obvious cost savings. Attending SMC is not an automatic entry into UCLA- nothing is. It’s a better chance, yes, but not automatic. UCLA (and UC Berkeley) does not participate in TAG (the transfer agreement guarantee). </p>
<p>When I look at my community college students, some of whom would think they had died and gone to heaven if their parents would pay for them to go to a four-year university, ANY four-year university, I can’t help but feel that some of these kids who have been given this opportunity but aren’t “happy” just have no idea how lucky they are. Believe it or not, some of my students have parents who won’t let them go away from home to attend university. Or the money to go to anything but a CC, because their parents are first-generation immigrants who have NO idea how to get scholarships, financial aid, etc. A trip to any developing country would perhaps give disgruntled students a new perspective on just how fortunate they are, to have choices and opportunities to get a university education with a scholarship. Imagine how many students in Ecuador would love to go to a university, ANY university, for example. </p>
<p>Perhaps Pepperdine is “quirky” and “glitzy”, but it’s not that horrible of a place to spend four years. The alternatives for this girl are to take a chance at UCLA re-admitting her (very unlikely) or losing a year and lots of heartache to start the college admittance proces all over again. She could just soldier on at Pepperdine with her AP credits and probably be done in three years and apply to UCLA for grad school (it’s a much better graduate school than undergrad, anyway, as is Berkeley).</p>
<p>Is it better to attend community college in order to go to some other state school in 2 years or whenever compared to attending the “I am dying here” Pepperdine?</p>
<p>Every year a few kids locally get into UCLA. Their parents look at the price tag and go its not worth 140,000 more than Texas A&M or UT and tell their kids to kiss the choice good bye. :p</p>
<p>I don’t know why UCLA is on the table in any fashion. Didn’t the OP say that the reason they didn’t choose UCLA was because of cost? If the parents are “desperate to make their unhappy little girl happy,” and therefore willing to beg, borrow, steal to do so, I think that is short-sighted. This young lady could be happy at a number of other schools. What about Washington State? </p>
<p>The problem here really isn’t the fact that she didn’t go to UCLA, the problem was that she didn’t have a good financial safety that was a good match for her. UCLA and Pepperdine are very different schools. </p>
<p>I do think she should withdraw, keep her frosh status, and reapply to schools that will be affordable.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine advocating withdrawal for anything other than a medical/mental health/family emergency. This student is not being asked to walk three miles uphill in the snow or work in a coal mine; she needs to soldier on and finish off the semester that she started in order to effectively evaluate her options.</p>
<p>College isn’t summer camp where you bring a kid home who hasn’t made friends and doesn’t like arts and crafts. Unless the D is in the throes of a mental health crisis, what is to be gained by losing a year of her education for the hope and a prayer of finding a better fit elsewhere?</p>
<p>Agree that Pepperdine is an acquired taste- and if the D has determined it’s not a fit, then she needs to focus on her classes and do well; get some of her gen ed pre-req’s out of the way (hopefully with the A’s that got her a merit scholarship to being with) and then re-evaluate later in the academic year when she can transfer some credits.</p>
<p>Throw out a semester’s worth of tuition (or 50%, or whatever is refundable by October) because there are too many rich white kids? Boy, you guys live in a rarified world!!!</p>
<p>Call the Admissions Director at UCLA and explain the situation and find out from the lead horse what the alternatives are and what s/he is willing to outright say. IF the Pepperdine situation has to be reported and would be an issue, if she can apply as non transfer student, etc, etc. Get it from the horse’s mouth. </p>
<p>In terms of finances, that’s a family issue and if the parents really feel this is worth it, that’s their business. How any of us feel about how they are going to meet the cost, is not what is being asked here. </p>
<p>One of my close friends has a DD now at USC who went to USF in CA, didn’t like it, did well and transferred. She was not happy with any of her choices right out of high school, and did a full slate of transfer apps and was accepted to all but one of the 8 schools, some of the ones that turned her down. That great first year showing made a huge difference. The same with my nephew who was WLed and had to choose a school for ROTC purposes before clearing the WL and then couldn’t get the ROTC and school changes in synch. Got right into his first choice school as a transfer. With good freshman grades, if a school has a good tranfer accept rate, it can make a big difference. </p>
<p>As for 6 weeks being enough time, yes, sometimes it is. But someitmes not. My nephew who was sure that he wanted out ended up staying after being accepted to his original first choice school as a transfer. A year at the school where he was changed his mind. I know any number of kids who decide that they like their school after hating it for a much longer time than six weeks. But some pick up and leave and absolutle despise and won’t tolerate a situation too. So it can go either way.</p>
<p>^^^“Throw out a semester’s worth of tuition (or 50%, or whatever is refundable by October) because there are too many rich white kids? Boy, you guys live in a rarified world!!!”</p>
<p>Thank you, lol.</p>
<p>I just want to add that the posters on this thread seem to be doing much more investigating and worrying about OP daughter, than OP!</p>
<p>A lot of this is really unfair. Pepperdine is not “quirky” or an “acquired taste.” It is an institution completely committed to infusing evangelical Christian values and perspectives into everything it does. That’s great if you are an evangelical Christian who wants it, or if at least you don’t feel excluded by it. And in the spectrum of evangelical Christian universities, it is certainly among the most welcoming and tolerant. But I can completely sympathize if a kid who didn’t understand what Pepperdine was wants out after six weeks. </p>
<p>Of course, the tragedy is that she could have known it wasn’t the place for her before she ever enrolled. When people are hunting for merit scholarships, they ought to pay a lot more attention to cultural issues like this. Even a “free” education isn’t free if you have to sell your soul to get it.</p>
<p>Many years ago, a cousin enrolled at Pepperdine after failing to get traction at three other colleges, one of which was UCLA. He found a home there, married a fellow student who was a fac brat, settled in the area, sent his children there, supports the university, his wife teaches as an adjunct there. They love Pepperdine, and I love them, but I wouldn’t have sent my children there if Pepperdine had paid them to attend.</p>
<p>JHS- respect what you’ve posted 100%- but even if a Wiccan mistakenly enrolled at BYU or Stern college, I can’t imagine chucking a semester’s worth of tuition and losing a semester of education for the sake of “preserving” Freshman status in the unlikely event that UCLA agrees to consider the D a Freshman again after enrolling AND attending somewhere else. Even the most evangelical institution teaches Jane Austen and Edith Wharton in Freshman English; Yeshiva University teaches molecular biology; Pepperdine has courses in European History and Chem. So get the Freshman/intro type courses out of the way (the family’s already paid for them) and then take a fresh eye at the transfer options. I’m not advocating that the kid’s got to stay once she’s ascertained that it’s the wrong place for her- I’m just questioning several posters who are advocating that she leave now- middle of the semester- for the hope and a prayer that this will short circuit UCLA’s policy not to take sophomore transfers.</p>
<p>Even a rock solid atheist can get a composition or lab science pre-req out of the way.</p>
<p>Out of state tuition + housing/food at UCLA is a little over $50k if you live off campus…maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t seem worth it unless the daughter has some spectacular scholarships to help cover the costs.</p>
<p>I think OP has left the building.
Parents were not aware that they could take out loans to make up the difference of the cost of an OOS school and now they are.
Just another poster who didn’t want another perspective and left when theirs wasn’t validated.</p>
<p>I’ve been lurking here. I’m hoping OP is as well. </p>
<p>My advice is to take a deep breath. I know it feels desperate because your dd is unhappy, but if UCLA was too expensive six months ago I’m betting it’s too expensive now. The difference is that dd is unhappy right now, and I fear this is causing you to make poor financial decisions in order to make her happy. </p>
<p>Before she chose a college, did you run all the numbers and set a limit on the amount of loans? If so, do the new loans you’re talking about for UCLA exceed that number? If yes, then this is a bad financial decision you’re making at a time of heightened emotions.</p>
<p>^^To be fair, the OP asked a simple question (can her D get into UCLA at this late hour?), and we answered it (and then some). The OP got her answer, (‘No way’), and (understandably) left.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, besides the simple answer (No), we cannot offer much more assistance since the OP did not come back with the reasons that her D was desiring UCLA. (academic programs? Beach? BFF? tanning opportunities? Get away from abusive relationships? Hundreds of other possibilities…)</p>
<p>Personally, if it were my kid, I’d suggest finishing the semester strong and apply to USC for next fall.</p>