hi i just got off the UCLA waitlist on thursday and im so excited because it’s my dream school. but now my parents are saying it’s too expensive and we might not be able to afford it. i’m trying to appeal the financial aid but i know they likely won’t do anything (im out of state). is there anything else i could possibly do??? is being in debt worth it? i just want to go so badly and i don’t really have time to decide
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Where were you planning to go?
And generally, I’d say it’s not good to go into a lot of debt. Would you need to take out more than the federal loan allowance?
How much debt would you have to take on to attend? You as a student can only take out $27K/4 years in Federal student loans. If your parents need to take out Parent Plus loans or Private loans so you can attend, definitely not worth it.
UC’s give good need-based aid to California residents since the bulk of the need-based aid comes from the State.
All I can say is that my kids always thank me for making sure they took on no debt for their Undergraduate degree.
Good luck with your decision.
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Called career services and they said UCLA has not collected post-career outcomes / salaries / internships / on campus recruiting since COVID.
Are there any possible sources to get data other than the “UC alumni at work” tabular online?
Also, can someone clarify the AP policy? I know it says on their website that they don’t take credits for outside ones major but I spoke to a rep on an admitted students day and it was very unclear.
UCLA takes very, very little AP credit. Here are the hard and fast rules:
- No AP credit can ever fill a GE requirement.
- Writing I can be fully satisfied by a 4 or 5 in either AP English exam. Writing II can never be fulfilled by AP.
- There are only a few true mappings of AP exam+score to UCLA course credit. These are as follows:
a. AP Physics C: Mechanics (4 or 5) → Physics 1A
b. AP Chemistry (4 or 5) → Chem 20A
c. AP Calculus AB or subscore (5) → Math 31A
d. AP Calculus BC (4) → Math 31A
e. AP Calculus BC (5) → Math 31A, Math 31B
f. AP Microeconomics (5) → Econ 1
g. AP Macroeconomics (5) → Econ 2 - Outside of these, some departments may take AP courses to fulfill premajor requirements. For example, the Psychology department will take a 4 or 5 in AP Psych to fulfill Psych 10, and the Stats department will take a 4 or 5 in AP Stats to fulfill Stats 10.
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ok it’s possible but i don’t know if it’s worth it. i would maybe have to take out 10-15k in loans which could definitely be worse. but i don’t want to feel guilty 24/7 for putting this financial burden on my family. like another thing i have to consider is traveling bc i live in new york so coming back for breaks wouldn’t be easy financially. idk what to do
So $40-60K in Loans for the 4 years? As stated, you are limited for student loans so are your parents willing to fund the rest since they are concerned about the costs?
This is a decision only you and your family can make but as a parent my kids knew up front what we were willing to pay for college so there was never an issue if a college was affordable.
Best of luck and you will be successful whatever you land.
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Help! Just got off the waitlist, from OOS. While our daughter did do a summer program at UCLA and lived in Reiber Vista so she’s familiar with the University she does not know where freshman choose to live. Is there a preference for dorms?
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It’s not clear what you mean by this. All AP credit counts towards the 180 units you need for graduation if you’re in the College of Letters & Science. It says so right on the page AP Credits for Majors in the College | Undergraduate Admission
In addition to the 180 units there are other requirements such as GE and major-specific requirements. The chart above tells you if an AP class meets any requirements.
“AP credit does not satisfy General Education requirements” is what I didn’t understand
Thanks. It appears that there’s a distinction between credits and specifically GE credits that I didn’t get.
If it’s a burden for your parents then no, it’s not worth it. Nor, as already pointed out, can you personally take out more than $27K in 4 years.
According to Tuition and Fees | UCLA Undergraduate Admission the cost for an OOS resident will be $76K this school year and you can count on that going up every year.
You mentioned in another post UCLA is your “dream” school. Sure it has a good location, smart students, a great reputation for a public. But when you look under the hood at what your actual experience will be like you can get the same large classes, lack of personal attention, and all the other aspects of attending a large public for about 1/3rd that cost at any SUNY. At triple the cost UCLA won’t give triple the benefits!
If you talk to a UCLA student they’ll tell you that often lower division classes are large, meaning 100 students or more. It’s right there in the Common Data Set, see pg 54 of https://apb.ucla.edu/file/b099e788-a3fc-4395-8842-29db4ff42da3 which says in 2023/24 there were 331 classes of over 100 students and another 302 with 50-99. And if you’re in a popular major like Econ or Poli Sci it doesn’t ever get much better; most of your upper division classes will be 50-99 and often more.
Yes this can allow you to graduate in 3 years if you pick a short major (eg Econ, PoliSci) and don’t try to double major. But for long majors (eg those in Engineering) you typically won’t use the extra AP unit credits.
Got UCLA, WL Ucsd!
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You can get personal attention at a large public like UCLA: if you are a standout student who seeks out opportunities then there’s plenty of individual mentorship, research projects etc with professors. And some majors have smaller classes than others (eg <60-80 in lower divisions and <20 in upper divisions). But UCLA is very competitive (both in academic classes and many ECs) and an average student who isn’t proactive can certainly go through the four years without getting any of that personal attention.
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Not at our school, are you? 
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Congrats! When did she receive the message? Over the weekend?
last Wednesday.
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Generally you should have access to a car to get around LA. There are some public transit but it’s not that convenient.
Are you referring to a freshman? Someone who won’t have an internship for several months? I would wait until they get the internship before bringing a car out. Parking is difficult and expensive.
It’s hard to say if OOS is worth it. I have 2 things to add:
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when we were making this decision, we were comparing UMichigan vs UCLA. It seemed silly for us to pay for UMichogan when UCLA was on offer. Luckily, D22 loved UCLA so this was not a problem for her.
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on the UCLA parent board, the parents who are most upset by somewhat petty things dorm fire alarms (this happens every year) and a long food truck line, as well as more serious things like strikes or protest management, are usually OOS parents. In these gripes, the parents are usually saying “we pay too much for this!” And while I agree, OOS is crazy expensive, UCLA is a huge public institution. Some things are incredible—truly. Amazing education, amazing quality of life and food, spectacular social life and weather… but it’s not perfect. How much you pay seems to have an impact on how much tolerance you have for the imperfections.
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