Unfortunately, the lack of a California HS education is a big factor in addition to:
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The lack of a certified GPA recorded by a California HS district for either home schooling or a high school transcript leading to a diploma.
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For students who didn’t earn a CA HS diploma, a CCC education with completion of requirements for transfer to a California university.
Yes you are a resident, and yes you have a California ID but to the State, you are another student. It doesn’t help that you didn’t graduate from a California High School program, nor a CCC.
The public universities in California are funded by your parents and other instate residents via yearly California State taxes. The State is not flowing in dollars so there is a finite amount of money in the State budget. That money has to get divided for professors salaries, building maintenance, support staff, security, academic and sports programs, liability insurance, housing upkeep, attorney staffs and a myriad of other fees.
The State is under political pressure to admit in-state residents who have followed the same curriculum. It doesn’t matter if the student attended public, private or home schooling in California because the students follow an instate curriculum. So, residents who have had their education in the State are the priorities.
Additionally, the Admissions offices can’t tell you that you will get 100% financial aid. That’s not their expertise. The Financial Aid offices are separate from the Admissions offices. They run their own budgets and program. The FA offices are currently VERY, very busy working on financial aid packages for all qualifying applicants who have asked for Financial Aid.
It’s not an All or None issue: “My income is under $80K so, the Blue and Gold program would make it free for me.” Your income is under $80K so your hat is in the ring, but that doesn’t mean you will get funded.
Do you understand that most of the 9 UC’s get over 100K applicants at each school?
The CSU’s get almost 900K applicants for their 23 campuses.
A large number of those students are hoping to get financial aid at some point.
Think about those numbers and prepare for that.
Additionally, you may not get “100%” financial aid because you are a transfer. The best aid always goes to Freshman applicants.