LMU or UCLA or UCSD

College Search & Lists
1

<p>For Political Science / Economics double major.
I was hoping to switch to Linguistics and Economics, but either is fine for me.</p>

<p>I got accepted into all 3, and I live in the Bay Area, and will be visiting on April 9-11th.</p>

<p>I have EFC of 0. My financial aid packet includes:

  • ~11k for UCs
  • ~10k for Privates
  • 5.5k from Pell Grant</p>

<p>UCLA has given me a ~5k scholarship, so my financial aid packet from UCLA is 21k.
UCSD has given me a ~3k scholarship.
I’d still have to get a ~9k loan for freshmen year.</p>

<p>However, I’m not sure about LMU’s financial aid packet.</p>

<p>Let me explain who I am as well:

  • I love to live in a somewhat close-knit community
  • I want to join a lot of diverse clubs (community service, cultural, social, etc.)
  • I want to be taught by good, knowledgeable teachers
  • I hope to live off campus as soon as possible, to reduce my cost of college because I won’t have room and board fees. So hopefully cheap apartments closeby.</p>

<p>I also want to go to Law School after graduating from Undergrad. Which would you suggest?</p>

2

<p>The schools are very, very different. Based on wanting a close-knit community, I would say LMU, hands-down-- if you can afford it. Very close-knit, good relationships with professors, quality professors. My D is a junior there, and one of her senior friends is doing very well with law school apps right now. There is plentiful off-campus housing-- it’s not cheap, but it’s cheaper than UCLA, which is a very expensive neighborhood. Not sure about UCSD.</p>

<p>Both UCs are huge. They have tons of opportunity, and are more prestigious, but they will not give you a small community.</p>

3

<p>UCLA…NO QUESTION
You go to London, Hong Kong or even Upper Michigan you think anybody will know anything about UCSD or LMU?
Hell people outside of LA County don’t even know where LMU is</p>

4

<p>UCLA has one of the top linguistic departments in the nation and so it feels natural to recommend UCLA.</p>

<p>LMU sounds to be the best fit but it honestly also sounds out-of-the-question with your budget.</p>

5

<p>You need to look the estimated Cost of Attendance for each of these places, subtract the scholarship and grant money they have awarded you, and then see what is left to pay. Don’t include any loan money or work study in this analysis, because you have to pay back loans, and you have to find a job in order to earn the work-study money. Which of these is actually going to be the least expensive for you?</p>

<p>Since your EFC is 0, you should qualify for the same amount of Subsidized Stafford Loans (these don’t collect interest while you are in college) and Un-subsidized Stafford Loans (these do collect interest while you are in college) at all of the universities. You shouldn’t be borrowing more than that amount each year, or it will be very difficult for you to pay it back. Not to mention that you might not be able to borrow enough private loans to come up with the total figure for loans that you include in your estimate.</p>

<p>Law school is ridiculously expensive, so you don’t want to borrow much for your undergraduate degree. You really do need to keep your costs down as low as possible. You may want to take another look at the CCCs that you can commute to from home for the first two years.</p>