<p>Alright so these are my two choices: UC Irvine or SUNY at Buffalo.</p>
<p>I originally wanted to go to SUNY at Buffalo (New York) because it’s away from home (I live in San Diego) and I want to experience a new environment while learning to become independent. I’ll be with new people, but my sister and her husband will be in Canada only 2ish hours away if I ever need anything.</p>
<p>However, I got accepted to UC Irvine just last week. Now I’m starting to question on where I want to attend. UCI is about two hours away from where I live and that means my parents are going to visit me often, which will not let me live that truly independent life I want. Seriously, my parents want to visit every other weekend, lol.</p>
<p>The thing with UB is that I’ll be paying out-of-state tuition ($26,000 for tuition, dorm, etc). But I did receive a $2,000 Pell Grant and a $7,500 scholarship from them. While if I go to UCI I’ll be waaay more financially stable. CalVet pays off my entire tuition all 4 years and I’m eligible for CalGrant (haven’t gotten it yet, but I’m guessing around 5000ish) plus that Pell Grant I got. So that basically means I can just work part-time and I’ll have my college paid with no loans necessary.</p>
<p>Adding onto that, since I won’t have any debt, I would be able to go to graduate school. If I go to UB then I wouldn’t go to grad school because my debt would already be so high. I was thinking that I would go to UCI for undergrad school and just attend UB for grad school (they have a good business program).</p>
<p>I want to major in Business. If I go to UCI I would have to work extremely hard to get into the business program (since it’s very impacted). And if I go to UB, I can double major in Business and Communications (I want to go into advertising).</p>
<p>I mean I love UB but UCI is pretty darn good too. Any suggestions on what I should do? :(</p>
<p>UC Irvine is a top 50 institution nationally while SUNY Buffalo is equivalent to a upper tier CSU - (think CSUN). I really do not think there is much of a comparison here to be honest ESPECIALLY given the financial factors. As for your parents, they might visit a bit in the beginning, but likely they will get tired of that 2 hour drive and you’ll be freed up a bit!</p>
<p>*eligible for CalGrant (haven’t gotten it yet, but I’m guessing around 5000ish) *</p>
<p>You won’t get that money for an out of state school.</p>
<p>How will you pay for UBuffalo? It sounds like you’ll have some/all tuition paid for with Cal-Vet, and you’ll have some Pell, but after that, how will you pay for the rest of your UB costs?</p>
<p>You can avoid parents visiting at UCI by just “keeping busy” …studying, part-time job, etc. Tell them which weekends you’ll have free.</p>
<p>Unless you have an overwhelming desire to work in Rochester or Elmira after graduation I don’t think this is a hard decision at all – UC Irvine.</p>
<p>I’d choose UC Irvine. Buffalo is known for extreme cold and snow…coming from San Diego it would be a huge adjustment. I live in NY and would never consider going to Buffalo!</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids - the calgrant was referring to uci. I haven’t gotten financial aid from irvine yet, but even without it I would still be paying less. This is how much I’ll pay on my own for each school: UB - 16400 and UCI - 11000. I plan on paying the rest with any scholarships I win, a part-time job and loans. I don’t want my parents burdened with my expenses.</p>
<p>Also, I just found out that I can only choose CalVet or CalGrant. However, while only using CalVet I would still paying less.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your input. I thought about this decision for quite awhile and decided to attend UCI. With better education and cheaper costs, this choice seems the most logical.</p>
<p>My son graduated from UB and I found it to be a fine school, but given the choice, all things equal, I would choose UC-Irvine in an instant. It is considered a better school by far. The UCs are the model that the SUNYs are using but we have not been able to come close to getting the excellence in our state university system.</p>
<p>Even if the decision were close in terms of school rankings, the financials would direct me to UCI. Being a PELL eligible student, your parents are not likely to be able to help you that much in loans and after college. Better to keep the cost down as low as possible. Being out of state, you are not going to get TAP and you will have travel expenses as well. Being closer to home will also help with expenses just because your parents can “shop the house” for you. Congratulations for having such a great option.</p>
and you’ll be freed up a bit!</p>
after weighing out the pros and cons, i’m leaning more towards UCI.</p>