Do I pick based on major or cost?

College Search & Lists
1

<p>These are my choices (only looked at So Cal, closer to home. Don’t like UCSD)

  1. CSULB Presidential Scholar. Free ride. Guaranteed 4 years of housing. Theater & journalism. I prefer Musical Theater and they don’t do much musical theater but I could study journalism and drama, but I understand there’s lots of nudity in the theater program, which I personally object to. </p>

<li><p>UCI. Good package with extra scholarships. Paired with my outside scholarships, it should be a free ride also, or close. They offer musical theater, but journalism is Literary Journalism, which interests me less than not at all. I don’t have a car so the lack of a weekend campus life is disturbing.</p></li>
<li><p>USC. Generous university grant, but unsure if it will continue. Outside scholarships the first year will mean no work study, but will have Stafford loan. They won’t allow my outside scholarships to remove the Stafford, instead reduce the university grant. Can study both Musical Theater and Broadcast Journalism, which I would really like. Scared of the possible debt when I get out (& mom is scared of area!). Is it worth the cost to study exactly the major I want? Am I better off taking one of the other offers? Is the USC connection a big factor in these areas? </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Any thoughts would be appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Just a note: Tell mom that USC is extremely safe. The area it’s in may not be incredible, but the campus is very very safe.</p>

3

<p>Some debt is OK. If you have a reasonable amount of debt, you probably won’t even notice it after graduation. If you have too much, you will. I know two people at work who regretted ranking up 40K in debt for Cornell and Dartmouth. Another person racked up 20K for Carnegie Mellon, and said it was never a big deal- it never inhibited her lifestyle. I wouldn’t worry much about 20 to 25K. After that, I would become skeptical. If you took UCI, buying a car should not be impossible. Most places don’t let freshmen have one, so you could wait. You will probably be needing a car for summer jobs, anyway. I would not let the car issue be a deciding factor- just get one.</p>

4

<p>OneMom,</p>

<p>I don’t know any campuses in California that don’t let frosh have cars. They may not all give good parking options, but they all let them at least try.</p>