<p>Hi All, We are still debating.......2 days to go and still not sure where this is all going. GC said not to, DH wants to, son is confused! We are OOS, he has good stats, but not a 4.0 GPA kid. Recently got back his ACT results and got a 35 on it.</p>
<p>Counselor says its better to go private, we have applied to Santa Clara. Since he would want to major in Comp Science (would love to be in California), hates cold weather, I thought he can try UCLA and UCI and see what happens. Have a friend living in Irvine - he would be travelling international.</p>
<p>Was wondering what is the general sentiment on here regarding the UC applications. We are US citizens living abroad, no fin aid requirements. I do not mind spending 65/- on the fee if its going to give son an option to consider when we visit schools after the acceptances come.</p>
<p>pixeljig, I told my S that it would be better to apply to both public and private. He’s submitted his apps for the 3 UC’s of his choice and has also applied to one private so far. He’s also applied to some CSU’s as safeties (although in their current budget situation, they aren’t reliable safeties anymore.) He’s looking into at least one more private and then OOS. The California public schools crisis has surely thrown a wrench in S’s plans. His first choice is a public.</p>
<p>It certainly won’t hurt to apply, but honestly I wouldn’t want my child going to a UC in the coming few years. It’s just too unclear how the budget cuts are going to affect the quality of education in the long-term. And if you’re going to pay OOS rates, you might as well pay a little more and choose a private school where your son would be getting a full-time education in return for full-time tuition.</p>
<p>BTW, my D (a freshman at a private in the midwest) has many high school friends who are going to California publics. She has heard alot during this Thanksgiving break about how the furloughs are affecting them, and that some classes are tough to get into. Several of her friends have said that all of this is a constant topic of conversation on campus, and there is a general feeling of turmoil. The announcement last week of a 32% tuition increase was also a major distraction. D told me that she’s glad she’s going to a private school where she is relatively insulated from the effects of the economic situation.</p>
<p>It makes sense to apply and then he can decide later after seeing his acceptances where to commit to. It’s worth applying to the UCs as well as privates. If he’s going to apply, don’t wait until the last day to do so since I’ve heard their computer systems get very busy in those final hours. A 35 on the ACT is quite good.</p>
<p>I asked her about the protests that occurred but she said they had no effect on her and were mostly confined to the dorm area and she’s now living off-campus so she never really saw much of them. The CS major keeps her plenty busy so she really doesn’t have time for worrying about such things. I think one of her courses that’s usually held in the winter Q won’t be due to the cutbacks so she’s having to do some juggling to take it in the spring instead. So far that’s the only effect she’s seen that’s affected her. The other effect is the tuition increase but it doesn’t increase the costs that significantly due to the phase in of it and the fact that even the full 32% increase amounts to an effective 10% increase in the COA when one includes housing costs. It’s still a higher cost but the money needs to come from somewhere.</p>
<p>The CS major is a pretty rigorous one that requires a lot of work but that’s to be expected at any of the colleges with pretty highly ranked CS programs.</p>
<p>My D initially said she wasn’t going to apply. She only had three she was remotely interested in (UCLA, UCD and UCB)…but honestly, even before the budget issues she wasn’t all that thrilled about any of them. None of them have her major, for one thing. </p>
<p>BUT, she went ahead and applied to the three on Wednesday. I think after she finally got her personal statements/essays written it wasn’t as hard to submit her apps. I know she still isn’t that excited. She just got her first acceptance to Indiana University-Bloomington with a nice $36,000 academic scholarship ($9,000 a year) and is eligible to the Huttons Honors College. Now we just have to decide if it’s feasible IF she decides this is where she wants to go. It’s her top choice. But we still have 11 more schools to hear back from by April, all in CA with the exception of two.</p>
<p>If you can afford privates, don’t waste your money OOS at a UC, except possibly Berkeley, because you will end up having to pay 5 years of tuition, since budget problems are cutting class availability and professors will be going elsewhere for better salaries. Honestly, I can’t imagine paying OOS for any UC at this point. My D got into Davis, Irvine, and SB, but chose to go private and we are so happy she did.</p>
<p>I keep asking DH, who teaches at a UC, what the impacts of the budget cuts are. He isn’t allowed to take a furlough day on a day that he teaches; his department isn’t laying off any adjuncts or reducing class offerings. There has been a lot of consolidation of research institutes which has affected him, but not really the students. The rumor is that the fee increases will go to restoring faculty salaries, which would certainly make us happy.</p>
<p>I really don’t know if the UC experience over the next four years will be all that degraded–especially in comparison to other privates. Many of the private schools D wants to apply to are also cutting faculty and programs due to endowment losses.</p>
<p>It’s really hard to guess what the financial impact will be in a couple of years. But I have frequently posted that, with the exception of a few specialized programs (and Berkeley CS would be one), IMO UC is just not worth $50k per year. UCI has a great comp sci program, but not for $50k.</p>
<p>Definitely go private. USC loves high test scores & full-pay international-types, so that college becomes a borderline safety. But your S would be foolish to ignore UMich, even tho its cold. Michigan is just a great collegiate experience. Or consider the warm south: Rice, Vandy, Emory, and perhaps Duke (depending on gpa).</p>
This simply isn’t a true statement. Why do you say they’ll end up paying 5 years tuition? Many many students finish in 4 years or less. Most of the ones who end up at 5 years do so due to their own decisions to switch majors a couple of times or to take a very light load throughout their time there. And I don’t think profs are necessarily going elsewhere for better salaries. Some will always be looking for better opportunities of course but it’s not as if these are the most lucrative times elsewhere for profs and a number of the profs are ensconced in their research at their present location.</p>
<p>to, DH wants to, son is confused! We are OOS, he has good stats, but not a 4.0 GPA kid. Recently got back his ACT results and got a 35 on it.</p>
<p>Counselor says its better to go private. Since he would want to major in Comp Science (would love to be in California), hates cold weather, I thought he can try UCLA and UCI and see what happens. Have a friend living in Irvine - he would be travelling international.</p>
<p>GOOD GRIEF! With an ACT score of 35 he should apply to USC, given all of the above.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley is one of the top schools in the country for comp sci. I don’t know why a person wouldn’t apply there. The private schools aren’t cheaper.</p>
<p>UCLA is pretty strong too.</p>
<p>USC might be worth an app. Might as well try Stanford too.</p>
<p>Berkeley is a top school in computer science for graduate students. That doesn’t always translate into a good experience for undergrads.</p>
<p>I suggest looking at UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis - UCSC because it’s an undergrad-focused campus with a strong computer science program, and UC Davis because the students I’ve known from Davis (in CS and other fields) were happy with their experiences.</p>
<p>It is getting precariously close to the application deadline for USC if one wants to be considered for a merit award. If not, then there is more time.</p>
<p>With all the bad press about the UC system I suspect USC is going to get buried in Apps from California this year. Might be a tough nut to crack for a Cali resident and perhaps quite a bit tougher for all who apply.</p>
<p>USC app is due in December I believe. (son is there but a junior now and can’t remember time frames that well)</p>
<p>btw San Jose State is one of the Top Comp Sci programs in Calif and better than some of the UCs for undergrad work.</p>
<p>D2 was accepted in all the UCs she applied to and was tempted by the program in her major at UCLA (for some reason she would not seriously consider Berkeley despite being accepted). But the budget uncertainty weighed heavily on her and so she chose her top choice private school. It wasn’t the uncertain cost that bothered her so much as the uncertain availability of the courses she would need to graduate. </p>
<p>The private school she chose has serious endowment/budget issues of its own, but I suppose it seems less frightening to a kid because it doesn’t seem to be so publicly unraveling the way the UCs are. With the UCs there seems to be one fee raise after another follwed by one new state budget gap after another right behind, all leavened with a big dose of partisan paralysis in Sacramento.</p>
<p>Maybe the financial realities at the UCs and the private school aren’t that miuch different, but just the public nature of state school funding and politics makes their problems so much more apparent.</p>
<p>Good luck with Stanford. Only 3 kids from the 2 schools in my area get in last year. Most of the top kids ignored USC and go to UCB and UCLA. USC is still couple notches below UCLA regardless of the finanical situation. A 35 on ACT could get scholarship at USC though. A kid in my son’s school got a USC scholarship last year although he was not NMF.</p>