<p>Unfortunately, those that offer a lot of $$ to transfers are the most prestigious, and hardest to get into. And if your “upscale” LA home has a lot of equity, Profile schools will not offer you a near full ride. Second semester grades will be too late, but you could send a preliminary grade report from your professors. </p>
<p>Unless you have a hook, the 3.5 is not very competitive for a transfer app to a top school such as Dartmouth or Amherst, where a 3.7+ is probably required. </p>
<p>Cornell-CAS will also require a 3.7+, but the Ag School is more transfer-friendly. Vandy is another top school with great aid that is transfer-friendly. </p>
<p>Apply broadly, but assume you will return to Berkeley next year.</p>
<p>In CA, Prop 13 allows adult children to inherit the low property tax basis from their parents. If the family is living in a home once owned by the grandparents, they could be paying very little in property taxes, regardless of the true market value of the home.</p>
<p>yes mom2, I did make an assumption that the OP owned a home. Otherwise, it would be virtually impossible to live in “upscale” California locale on $$2500/mo. Heck, rent in a moderate area easily runs over $1k/mo.</p>
<p>^ Right, our home is worth a lot of money. My grandparents bought it for 200K in the 70s and it’s currently worth much more than that, yet taxes aren’t a problem.</p>
<p>Oh and thanks for the replies everyone. I obviously wouldn’t “cut off” Berkeley until much later in the process, and only if I had a good alternative school ready for me. Cal is alright but I want to consider better alternatives for me.</p>
<p>I have done some research, based largely on the responses in this thread, and also based on what I already know. I now have a good list of schools but I need to narrow it down BASED ON TRANSFER FINANCIAL AID. I need a school that would, if I am accepted, provide a sufficient financial aid package for me (a transfer student with sub $30K income yet living on a property with lots of equity, which is by the way maxed-out in loans… a move I would have never agreed with had I been older at the time – hence why I am loan-aversive and need a school with good FA otherwise I will remain at Cal).</p>
<p>yale
dartmouth
vanderbilt
georgetown
wake forest
rochester</p>
<p>amherst
williams
hamilton
colby
davidson
colgate
bucknell
lafayette</p>
<p>Please don’t try to contest this list too much because I have done a good amount research on the schools, along with thoughtful reflection. For example, I have reasons to include Vanderbilt but not Emory. I am mostly looking to narrow this list based on the financial aid issue.</p>
<p>Suggest you take a look at the finaid calclulator on Dartmouth’s website. That will give you a good approximation of your Profile EFC. Each school is different on how they treat home equity, however. Some colleges, such as Stanford, cap home equity at a multiple of your income. Others use full equity as an asset. You may have to narrow your search to FAFSA only schools. And even some of those require Asset forms.</p>
<p>fwiw: for a rough idea, approximately 5.6% of your home equity will be considered an ‘asset’ by Profile that is available for college tuition. So, if your parent’s equity is say, $500k, a college would expect you to extract $28k from it somehow.</p>
<p>Your time would likely be more productive looking for a comfortable place to live next semester in Berkeley than worrying about transferring. Finding an apartment in Berkeley is stressful…but if you push it off with the thought that you’re going to transfer and those plans don’t pan out, you’ll be scrambling for a place that would likely not suit your needs and make you very unhappy.</p>
<p>Classes get much smaller and more intimate as you move into upper divison courses as well.</p>
<p>The schools the OP is talking about do meet needs for transfers. Now they do require the Profile which it didn’t take to get all the Sid at Berkeley, so if the family has assets that go beyond the low income, that’s a different story.</p>
<p>I’d say both grades and scores were low for ivies last year. That might make you a more successful junior transfer than soph one. Or you could try an SAT retake for your best shot this year.</p>
<p>But your stats and college record would get you into many LACs that meet need. Bates is one that sends some into finance. I like Colgate for this too and CMC.</p>
<p>The College of William & Mary seems to fit your description. 6000 undergrads and 2000 grads with a strong community feeling. Something like 80% of undergrads live on campus and they’re building more dorms as there is high demand for it. Academics on par or better (for undergrad) with Cal. It has fairly decent need based aid as well, but the catch is its public (one of the “public ivies” for what its worth) and although it feels more private, its expense is generally much lower and is usually ranked in the top 3 for “best value” colleges. Located in Williamsburg, Virginia.</p>
<p>One caveat about colleges not providing financial aid for transfers: this was true when I transferred decades ago. But I discovered that I was considered a “returning student” at the beginning of the following academic year. Because I transferred summer quarter, I qualified as a returning student the very next term, and received financial aid. (One other caveat - my alma mater now only admits transfers for the fall quarter.)</p>