After talking with some of my classmates looking into attending college outside our Midwestern idyll, I’ve noticed an enormous amount of students applying solely to schools in California (more specifically, the UCs and USC). While I admit that I can see the beauty of life in CA and realize how prestigious some Cali schools are, going to these colleges in California from out-of-state comes with a hefty price tag for most families. I know it isn’t my place to judge others’ finances, but I already know of a couple families mistakingly believing that if they move to California, they only have to pay one years’ OOS tuition at UCs. Another is considering taking 150k in loans.
On the other hand, USC, while also having a fantastic academic reputation in the eyes of most, is fast approaching NYU levels of unaffordability for the majority of college prospects. While some families can afford the rising tuition, some others are shafted by cruddy financial aid, especially as we get into the middle-class income regions.
While I cannot attest to “rumors” of budget cuts at UCs, it seems like an excessively difficult process for a lot of people to make it work in California. I’m also considering living in California, but that doesn’t mean I have to rush it, right? Right?
I understand that most parents will go to world’s end to bring the slightest happiness to their children and that picking the right college is a very important process, but I don’t endorse the idea of putting hard-working families in financial instability.
So why do so many families take large loans and financial burdens that they may not be able to afford comfortably to attend college in California when there are plenty of other opportunities to move to California?
I’m just a lowly high school senior; maybe some of you can help me figure this out.
Each state needs to be checked out for its residency requirements for in-state tuition purposes.
If the whole family moves with the student, then one year may be enough since the student is presumably not in that state for purely educational reasons.
You’ve got two questions here- why CA and why unaffordble colleges. Personally, I’d rather be in CA, any time of year. And we talk affordability concerns all the time.
It’s harder to gain in-state at CA publics than just moving, btw. Pages and pages of documentation explaining allowable circumstances.
@Publisher Out of curiosity, I had looked up the UC policy. While the “non-educational” part stands true like expected, UC explicitly states that
The [url = http://ucop.edu/residency/establishing-residency.html#financialindependence] Financial Independence Policy makes becoming a resident for tuition purposes “extremely difficult”. Somehow, the UCs are unable to slow the flow of OOS students, which makes their changes logical, if disheartening to OOS students.
@lookingforward I’m going to be attending an expensive liberal arts college, so I guess I took the unaffordable college bait. I do love California and would love to be there right now with winter, but even to me, the UCs seem pretty expensive.
Then there is the difficulty of getting into UCs even for in-staters with high stats, which I think is a bit unfair.
And, of course, is the whole family moved, the primary wage earners would be moving, presumably, primarily for work & not just for their child’s education. But, I do not know how the UCs interpret this law.
Some states are more open & some are very restrictive. Things change as some states have gotten more restrictive over the past few years.
@foodeater: “Then there is the difficulty of getting into UCs even for in-staters with high stats, which I think is a bit unfair.”
Not all the UCs are difficult to get in to for high-stats CA residents. Only the top ones.
But then again, CA has almost as many people as England, and Oxbridge is also tough to get in to for English kids. Is that also unfair?
Plus, while tougher to get in to for in-staters than most publics, Cal and UCLA also are esteemed more highly than most publics as well.
Self dependence is a little different than a family legitimately moving. But many states have similar rules now. Some have exceptions for OOS students they want. The state funds, from state taxpayers, support the state public U’s and priority for in-state rates rightly goes to legit residents.
I lucked into grad school at IS rates at a UC after a year and a day (old rules.) I was legit there, working, etc, before deciding on school.
CA is so financially broke. Budget cuts (not just at the U’s but in all sorts of public services) are very real. If you found the UCOP, you can probably find the UC senate reports on $ woes.
@PurpleTitan Sorry, I wasn’t being specific enough. There was an article a while back about a relatively normal, intelligent person with a 33 ACT and 4.0 getting rejected by Davis. While there might be skeletons unaccounted for, I still feel like someone with that kind of track record should be able to attend a mid-tier UC.
They believe everything they think they see in media.
For some reason, people who don’t live in our state, appear to think that it is all sun, sand, beaches and palm trees. Only true in a tiny fraction of California, and even then, we have to import the palm trees.
I recently attended a conference in Louisiana and was asked if it was always 76 degrees and how many movie stars I saw on the street on a daily basis!!!
They don’t seem to understand how large and varied the state is and how congested the roads are.
The cost of living is ridiculously high, especially housing, so there are a lot of homeless people on our “sunny” streets.
California’s agriculture is massive, so a large portion of the state is made up of farms. These areas are somewhat affordable for housing, but most transfers in don’t want to live in a farm community. People from the Midwest will be trading from wheat and corn to citrus and organic farm products.
We’re in AZ and our HS Naviance always shows a big group of seniors applying to the UC’s. I think it’s based on a mistaken impression that they’ll qualify for financial aid or be able to qualify for in state tuition after a year. Eventually reality hits and so the Naviance stats also show that hardly anyone actually attends. I do know several kids who’ve gone to Cal Poly SLO but it’s a little more affordable than the UC’s.
If it was a 4.0 weighted GPA, then that is easily believable, since the UCs tend to heavily weight GPA over test scores, to the detriment of test-score-heavy applicants, particularly those who apply for more competitive majors (commonly engineering majors and CS).
I do love California and would love to be there right now with winter, but even to me, the UCs seem pretty expensive.