Hey, I’m trying to decide what schools to apply for during the regular decision round and I’m not quite sure where I should apply. I want to apply to somewhere in California (I’m from Ohio) but not quite sure where to apply since I’m going to have to pay for most of my own college. Are there any colleges in California that are reasonably priced for OOS students? (my definition of reasonable would be less than thirty grand per year)
Oh, yeah, please don’t stay Stanford. I’m not blowing more money on a throw away app lol. My grades are good (4.3w/3.98uw 10aps) but I have mediocre ECs so maybe let me know if there are any schools in California that have good merit scholarships?
Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!!!
Run the Net Price Calculator on Occidental, Pitzer, Scripps (if you’re female), Santa Clara, St Mary’s of California, Loyola-LA, Chapman.
Some may provide enough merit to bring costs to about $30K.
Some CSU’s also might, if you apply to the Honors College and you’re lucky: SDSU, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly SLO (?), Chico State, Sonoma State, perhaps even UCM…???
If you like Northern California, would you consider colleges in the Pacific Northwest such as Lewis&Clark, UPortland, UPuget Sound, Whitman?
“I’m going to have to pay for most of my own college.”
This part of your post really stands out to me. Do you know if you quality for need based financial aid? What can you and your parents pay in total for four years without taking on any debt?
Paying for most of your college costs yourself is a huge issue. This might significantly restrict your choices. You just cannot take on enough debt to pay for most universities. This means that you are going to need to get a LOT of financial aid (whether need based or merit based) or you are going to need to find a very low cost option.
One friend of a daughter was in a similar situation, with very similar high school stats. She went to community college for two years close enough to her father’s home that she could live with him, did just as well there as in high school (all A’s), and then got a very good merit based scholarship to an in-state public university still close enough to the same father’s home. She is about to graduate with a marketable major and very little debt. If she wanted to move to California, after she graduates (this coming May for her) would be the time to do it.
Have you been working a part time job while in high school? If so, then a part time job is an extracurricular activity, shows a lot of responsibility, and makes your excellent grades even more impressive.
I do not qualify for need based financial aid. My dad almost makes six figures but didn’t really save much for my college (I have around 5k in savings) and I have not been working, and my parents won’t let me get a job at the moment due to COVID. I figure if I work during the summers I can make around 5k per year and my parents will probably contribute around 2k per year. I did however already receive a nice scholarship from the University of Akron which is close enough that I could commute if I had to. I would probably be able to graduate with <20k in debt, if that. I also expect a decent scholarship from Kent State University which would be even closer to commute to. I also applied to case, where if accepted, I could commute (around 40 minutes drive) there as well. I really do want to live on campus though so I’m hoping I both get in and get a good scholarship at at least one of the schools I applied to. Really banking on the merit aid unfortunately!
I have heard of a few cases of students living on-campus for their freshman year, and then living with parents for the remaining three years. This a bit expensive however just for the experience.
Good luck with this. I hope that this works out. Kent State does sound hopeful to me although we are not from your part of the country and did not look that far west for undergrad (we are from the northeast).
A not-quite-6-figure salary could qualify you for non FAFSA aid, called “institutional aid”, depending on the college’s own formula.
Run the NPC on Allegheny College, Denison College*, Kenyon College*, Ohio Wesleyan, Case Western Reserve*, Dickinson*, Lafayette*, Franklin&Marshall*, Lehigh*.
(*= top colleges that offer excellent financial aid, even for families that make “almost six figures”)
What’s your net cost at the 3 colleges with the best results (Please list in this thread) and is that affordable for your family?
Beside UAkron and Kent State, where else have you applied?
You did well applying to commutable colleges, make sure you apply to the Honors College and any related scholarship. (Honors Colleges typically add to your scholarship package )
What about tOSU, OU, Miami-Ohio (all of which are stronger than Akron or Kent State, although both universities are solid public universities)?
YSU has excellent merit aid but, well, Youngstown, so I think you have better choices in Kent State.
What do you want to major in?
I already applied to CWRU, tOSU, and Miami and their respective honors programs. I’m planning on applying to Oberlin, Kenyon, and Denison though since they have no application fee. OWU is definitely unaffordable based on the NPC, and I don’t really want to leave state unless it’s to go to California since I have family there.
I ran the NPC on the in-state colleges you listed and the most affordable one would probably be Miami since they have a guaranteed merit scholarship. The most I’d probably have to pay there is ~19k per year. OSU is the second cheapest at ~25k before any scholarships (their scholarships are fairly small… only around 1-3k). Kenyon would cost around 27k. Of course, these predictions are all before any (merit) scholarships so hopefully, I get a few scholarships at some of these schools to bring down the cost.
As to what my family can afford? No idea. My mom doesn’t want to contribute anything, but my dad who works says he’ll contribute at least a bit. I figure I can make $5000 a year if I work during the summers which I can put towards college. So roughly the cost of college - $7000 will be left to loans.
I’m planning on majoring in chemistry, biochemistry, or physics. I’m also considering computer science but when applying to colleges I said chemistry.
I intend to go to medical school or graduate school. At the moment I think that radiology might be a good fit for me. This is subject to change since I plan on volunteering and shadowing during my freshman year to see if I’m actually cut out for it. If I’m not cut out for that I’d probably go into computer science. Either way, I do want to keep my debt as low as possible of course.
Radiology can either mean specialties for physicians with MD degrees, or radiology technicians, who most commonly have associates degrees. Presuming you mean the former…
Remember that entry to medical school is highly competitive. Beyond that, entrance into residencies for some specialties is highly competitive. Radiology specialties appear to be among the more competitive, though not the most competitive, specialties.
For computer science, check the colleges you are considering to see whether changing into the computer science major after enrolling is difficult (as in requiring a high college GPA or competitive admission). Computer science departments at many colleges are filled to capacity, so there is little or no space for students changing major to get into the major at those colleges.
Some of the schools I listed aren’t that far from Ohio, so that if they were to offer sufficient financial aid as per NPC, they’d be worth considering. Oberlin, Denison and Kenyon are likely to be among the most generous in OH though.
Often merit scholarships don’t “stack” on top of need-based financial aid, except at in state public universities.
You can only borrow 5.5K for freshman year.
Just to be realistic, typically students can make 3-4K if full time over the summer to go toward 1st semester tuition; 3.5K part time over the year for miscellaneous; to which it might be possible to add seasonal work around Christmas (not much but some).
The work study or part time work during the school year typically helps with miscellaneous expenses (books, lab cost, pizza, new mittens…) and cannot be counted for tuition or R/B.
Sounds like Miami Ohio is your best deal so far.
tOSU does have stackable scholarships which can be generous but they’re competitive and you wont know for a while.
I don’t think you’ll find any CA college that’s better priced than the ones already listed.
You know that medical schools are very expensive so yes, keep undergrad down to as cheap as possible.
As someone else said, CS is a popular major and may be difficult (or impossible) to enter into in your sophomore year if you want to try to switch majors.
If money is truly an issue and you are interested in radiology. There are rad tech programs (COTC for example) and some of the tech schools even have dorms so you could have the “college experience” yet save on tuition costs.
I intend to go to medical school or graduate school. If I’m not cut out for that I’d probably go into computer science.
A few years ago this would have said "If I’m not cut out for that I’d probably go into investment banking or to law school (haven’t decided yet)
so medicine or grad school or CS. What I think you’re really saying is “I have a few ideas about what I’d like to do but I don’t know for sure yet, however my plans are for a high-paying future” And this is reasonable. Kids go to college to get ahead.
The problem is doors can start closing early. Given that there is uncertainty about your future, you should be sure to look for colleges where you keep flexibility. Ironically since you started this thread with a question about CA schools, at the CA publics for the most part it is quite difficult to change into CS if you were not accepted as a frosh or xfer in the major. So for the colleges you do end up applying to be sure to look into whether you’d be able to change into CS (if that ends up being something you want to pursue)
^very good point.
If you want to switch to CS then don’t apply to CA (or anywhere on the West Coast).
You’d need to apply to colleges where CS is NOT in Engineering (or where they offer Informatics, Information Science&Technology, Cybersecurity, Computing… outside of Engineering) if you wish to see if you’d rather be a premed or a CS major.
If you want to keep your options open, your first semester will likely include:
English Composition (unless you have AP credit or they require a Seminar no matter what)
Calculus 1 or 2 (depending on AP credit)
General Chemistry with lab
Intro to CS/Programming
Foreign Language (unless you have AP credit, in which case you’d take an Art or Humanities or Social Science class)
==> doable.
Second semester would get dicier:
Calculus 2 or 3 if CS, Calculus 2 or Stats if premed
General Chemistry 2 with lab
General Biology 1 if premed, CS 2 if CS
Psychology
Calc 2 or 3+ General Chem + General Bio + CS would be a killer workload. It doesn’t matter much for CS and related majors (Informatics, computing, etc) as long as they keep a 3.0 but for premeds a 3.6+ is paramount and such a workload would almost guarantee a few B’s at best. (A 3.6 is much harder to get in college than in high school).
You thus need to find a university where 1° both majors are in the same college 2° you can switch easily.
Case Western is one but look at the public universities (they’re the most likely to restrict access to the CS majors).
Note that some of these majors may not be technically based, rather than business-based majors aimed at those who want to manage computers and software, rather than design and develop them. Note that whether CS is engineering-based is not the same as whether it is difficult to change into, although engineering-based CS majors will have more math and non-CS science requirements.
Regarding the suggested schedule, calculus 3 is not always needed for CS majors (particularly if the CS major is not engineering-based). Linear algebra and discrete math are typical required math courses for CS majors. Statistics (often calculus based) may be required or included in some other required course.
Instead of “foreign language” and “psychology”, it may be better to list “general education” as needed to fulfill the college’s requirements. Because psychology and sociology are common pre-med requirements or recommendations, choosing them if they do fulfill general education requirements can be a good idea.
Regarding college GPA for CS, if CS is a competitive major, the college GPA to get into the major may be substantially higher than 3.0, depending on the college. Check each college to find out if this is the case.
If OP’s family makes “close to six figures”, they wouldn’t be eligible for Berea. The financial eligibility requirement makes it 60-65K for a family of 4 (roughly).
OP, complete this to see if you can apply to Berea: https://bereaquickestimator.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx
It’s a top college so if you do qualify academically and financially, it’d be a very good idea to at least apply.
OP needs to fill out financial aid forms if applying to any of the private colleges listed. Under six figures will likely get you institutional $ at Case, Denison, etc.
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