CA donut hole family here. While S will apply to at least one UC, all of the other schools on his list are OOS, and it’s purely for financial reasons. There’s no way in heck that we can manage the $20-25k the NPCs are spitting out for a variety of CA schools, and that figure is assuming that S can swing a Regents scholarship, which is not at all guaranteed.
Now we hear that CA might eliminate the Middle Class Scholarship, and hooboy - kid, how’s Albuquerque looking? While I absolutely support CA prioritizing families with the highest need, the reality is that S will have to take an NMF scholarship (which we dearly hope he gets) and head OOS for undergrad. Hopefully, he will be able to come back for med school.
And if he doesn’t come back for med school, if the culmination of being pushed out of state for undergrad means he leaves CA for good, then the state needs to consider whether their educational policies are creating a brain drain.
I live in CA because I came here for grad school, married a native and stayed.