<p>OP if you actually have the stats to think you might get into Berkeley, UCLA, or Carnegie Mellon, you could probably get some very generous merit aid at a number of other excellent schools - mostly out-of-state, but if you’re considering CM it seems you are open to different locations. </p>
<p>Have you considered this idea? </p>
<p>I bet you can find a lot of places you’d rather spend the next four years at rather than Merced! </p>
<p>(BTW do you really have to pay for each UC application separately? I thought you submitted one app. and picked your preferred campus(es), and then they get back and tell you if you got your pick or got sentenced to Merced . . . or something like that. I could be wrong. My kids did not apply to UCs but I have friends whose kids did.) </p>