The “Cc with dorms” option sounds great.
College of the Redwoods near Eureka and near Cal Poly Humboldt would make the transition to the 4-year college easy, and Pell+federal loans would cover (most of) tuition, room, and board. The residence halls even offer a “Study Hall”, a floor where students are dedicated to academic success (though they join activities and party like others, they’re more focused during the week). And the area would really feel like he is out of state.
Based on the information provided, moving from home may be the most stable situation this student would find, which would in turn allow him to focus on academics&work.
Maybe some more clarification on why the student is looking for a 4-year college would help (I also didn’t discuss cc’s originally given the emphasis on 4-year college in the question made it sound like they already know about and don’t want a cc option). If it’s the “experience”, then maybe a cc with dorms will go part of that way. If it is for their own satisfaction to show that they can do “better” than a cc, or for a more full “college” experience than dorms, then a csu would make more sense. I still don’t see how budget is going to work outside of CA, though.
This!
Unfortunately this student is high need with explainable but low grades/test scores. OOS or a private school tuition is likely going to be unaffordable.
In the past some students with lower scores did get some small scholarships at some of the “colleges that change lives” schools. It’s possible that some scholarship money combined with need-based aid could potentially make a school Affordable, but unfortunately, it’s probably unlikely.
I assume he has a 2nd fee waiver, so if he can find a test center and work on the math section to get to a 600 (should be doable) while maintaining or increasing English a bit, it would open the options below as reaches.
any chance he can take one more semester of Spanish? One more semester of science? To include on the CommonApp or SRAR as Spring courses as examples of better rigor.
Assuming he can bring his score to a 1250-1260, there’s Berea then he can run the NPC on the following Colleges that Change lives
especially good fit for his background or interests
Clark, MA
Cornell College
Goucher, MD
Hendrix, AR
McDaniel
where he stands a 50-50 chance of admission
Beloit, WI
Centre, KY
DePauw, IN
Earlham, IN
Guildford, NC
Hiram, OH
Knox
Wabash
Wheaton MA
Because those are reaches, he should only apply if the NPC indicates net price (before loans) around 6-7k or less.
There are schools with 100% admission as long as the student has earned a hs diploma. Utah Tech is very affordable and Utah allows students to switch to in state fairly easily.
However, I agree that community college would be an excellent choice for this student since they are in CA and the pathways into UCs are so strong.
Two years seems like a long time, but I bet it’s possible to meet the transfer requirements in a year or less if they looked at the actual classes they would need to take and started this summer.
A good cc transcript would also make them competitive for schools like Case Western that meet need for transfers, too.
A year or so in CA could keep them out of quite a bit of student debt since the CA need based aid is so good as well as open up more options out of state as a transfer.
Look at the University of Wyoming. Even out of state tuition is inexpensive. Also sounds like Pell eligible?
ETA:
University of Wyoming does attract California students…so this isn’t unheard of. The state is very red, but Laramie is purple, and the university leans blue. I’m not sure it’s the best choice for LGBTQ or POC BUT that being said -there are some really outstanding LGBTQ and POV faculty. It’s just hard in a state that is 90%+ white to have a diverse student body.
It has snow --an excellent cross country ski team - --where even people who have never skied before can join.
It has great hiking.
ETA AGAIN – it is NOT a big city Okay this might be a bad choice then
Okay this might be a bad choice then