<p>“Yes, if you’re a Calif high school grad and resident, lowish/modest income, and you go to a CC first, then transfer to a UC, then you’ll get very good aid. That sort of situation is the exception, not the rule. That is why most CC students end up transferring to their local state univ…they can’t afford to “go away”.”</p>
<p>bizzare logic. Most cc students end up transfering to their local state universities does not prove that only california UC’s give transfer aid at all. Most students go to their local state universities anyways. Also, cc students care doubly so about costs, cause they are often paying without much help from their parents AND their transfer degrees have transfer agreements with the local state universities. </p>
<p>Obviously the freshman scholarship pool is bigger but there is also MUCH more competition for that pool of money. It makes sense that the transfer pool is smaller, but that does NOT mean that a transfer student will get no aid. </p>
<p>It’s very hard for me to believe that going to a CC and then transfering to a 4 year is not the cheapest alternative for 90% of the students. Maybe a select few would have gotten scholarship offers as a freshman that are so huge as to close the difference between CC & state university for 2 years - but that’s hard for me to believe. MANY freshman pay ALOT more money than they would at a CC, 4 year universities aren’t cheap people! Saying that the general rule is that 4 year university ends up being cheaper than CC is strange, I’d say that it is the exception.</p>