Any suggestions of colleges near LA or within a few hours of it?

State Forums
1

My dream school was always UCLA, but seeing how expensive it is for OOS students (I’m from NJ), I don’t think I’d be able to go there. I still love California though, and I’d want to go to school there, preferably somewhere near LA. I took the SAT once and got a 1530 (740 english, 790 math) & as a junior I currently have a 4.3 GPA (not including my junior year grades yet - my grades are better this year so I’m hoping it will increase). I have plenty of extra-curriculars and as a creative writer, I think I can write pretty strong application essays.

I was really interested in Pepperdine, but I’m not sure about it since it’s Christian-based and I’m not Christian, so I’m afraid of feeling out of place there/disliked for having a different religion. If you have any info on Pepperdine & how religious it really is, I’d really appreciate that too.

I also really like UCSD, but again, as a UC, it’s too expensive for an out of state student (I cant pay $60k/yr).

I hope to go to medical school one day, so I’d want a school that is challenging but that I can attain a pretty good GPA at.

Any ideas on schools that could be a good fit for me?

2

Have you run FAFSA to see what your EFC is? Do you think you can get merit/financial aid from private colleges? There’s a bunch around there.
Whittier, Occidental, Loyola Marymount, the Claremont University Consortium.

3

You need to do the FAFSA to figure out your EFC. If you are eligible for financial aid some of the schools (Occidental and the Claremont Colleges: Pitzer, Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Scripps and Harvey Mudd) give great aid. My nephew received full aid with minimal loans from Oxy. BUT it is dependent on if you qualify for financial aid. Otherwise, the schools you mentioned are just as expensive as an OOS school for you.

4

https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/student-life/spiritual/convocation/

At Pepperdine it seems like you have to go to convocation in addition to taking religion classes. That sounds like a dealbreaker to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have to sign a contract about being a “morally upstanding” person.

5

USC perhaps - again check your EFC and apply by early date to be considered for merit aid. Chapman University.

6

Chapman, Loyola, Redlands, USC and USD.

My $.02: I’d leave Pepperdine off the list unless you are of that faith. But that is not an issue with the Jesuit schools (LMU, USD, etc.).

7

@arc918 USD is Catholic but not Jesuit.

8

Correct, but I think USD is less “religious” than Pepperdine or Point Loma.

9

You need to run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for each of the schools above, not the FASFA EFC. The FASFA EFC will have little to no relevance to your actual cost at most private schools.

10

That’s very true- for private schools you need to use the net price calculator and you will need financial info from your parents (wages, properties owned, etc). For my nephew, the NPC was a good predictor of what he was eventually offered from the private schools.

11

there is nothing wrong with applying to a bunch of them.

With your stats, you will probably get some solid merit aid from LMU and USD. As others note - schools like Pepperdine and Pt Loma won’t discriminate but, faith is woven pretty deeply into the student experience.