Or split it half subsidized loan and half work, to make it more manageable ($6,000 is a lot of money to earn over breaks).
Please don’t hate me, helpful people of this thread, but I’m starting another thread about another whole aspect of this college thing…I’ll revisit this stuff too, depending on the outcome (for us) on the other aspect. Coming soon.
He might be able to get a job tutoring on campus or helping in the athletic dept, even just a few hours a week would help to cover some of his personal expenses.
I love this idea! He is really good at math, and has a ton of sports/gym experience, loves the gym scene.
[Recap: deciding between UC Riverside, Cal Poly Pomona, San Jose State, and San Francisco State. Ruled out all OOS schools. UCR would mean about 6 grand per year over budget, and the boy could take loans and/or work to handle that. We would pay for the others. He is undeclared at each school with interest in math, science, maybe business-y math fields, or maybe some kind of engineering too.]
OK, so I realize that we haven’t made any movement since I last posted an update. But I got over a freak-out from some recent immature behavior of the boy’s, and I’m back from the ledge of pulling the plug on all of it. 
I’ve done a lot of research on impacted majors, ease of getting into majors and reputation, if you will, of each school in possible majors. They all seem appropriate for his needs, and doable. UCR is coming out ahead on most counts, and it is his favorite after visiting, although he didn’t hate any of them. One big one where UCR is lagging is supposed Return on Investment. SJSU is tops among his choices. I’m thinking it’s because people are getting Silicon Valley level salaries because of Bay Area cost of living. The other area of concern with UC Riverside is who recruits on campus. I was underwhelmed by what I was finding on employer visits to campus job fairs. UCR pales in comparison to SJ and CPP, with SJ seeming tops; I think they’ve got a great alumni network that helps them compete with the likes of Stanford and Cal. It’s also been suggested that with all the good schools in SoCal, USC, UCLA, UCI, even CPP, do SoCal companies bother with UCR. I can’t know for sure. All in all, I think SFSU is not keeping up with the others at this point, which is a shame, because I like SF., and would enjoy visiting there.
So, if anyone’s up for it, and knowledgeable, I think we’re down to needing some input on the specific schools from people who know stuff about them. My son is preferring UCR, but is still interested in making the best choice possible, and can be influenced by anything important. Anyone?
Thanks for any and all input.
“Cal Poly Pomona - in budget - too close to home”
I don’t think that I already said this on this thread (my apologies if I did): If he lives on campus (such as in a dorm), even if the university is only two miles from home, it will still feel like a completely different world. He will set his own hours, wake up surrounded by other students, decide when to eat and when to study, and so on.
The advantage of being close to home is that if something goes wrong you can be there or student can be home quickly. The downside is that for many of us there just doesn’t happen to be the appropriate “best match” university right near where we live. However, if the students wants to “go away”, and there happens to be a great choice really close to home, it will still feel like being away in a different world compared to being at home with parents.
Yes, thank you @DadTwoGirls, I think you’re right. At his age, and given his level of independence, I can see that closer to home has its benefits, but also think he could manage if he went a little further. We’ve crossed that hurdle mostly; we’re ok with him closer to home. We needed to for both UCR and for CPP.
Hey, so, I wanted to update you all. My son ended up choosing to go to UC Riverside. It really just kept coming up to the top for him, and in so many ways it feels right. He will be only an hour/hour and a half from home, which seems to be in his comfort zone. We’re hopeful that he will get a great education, and have plenty of fun too. It’s crazy how all of this morphed for us. I never would’ve expected he would stay close to home, and certainly not head to Riverside (good school, but in an area that we coastal people look down our noses at 
). And since this thread was about budget, I’ll add, Riverside is less than Colorado, which was the initial wish, but the gap is less and can be covered by loans and/or some work. And, the important thing is, while the consensus seemed to be that Colorado was not worth the debt and pressure it would put on our son, we think, and more importantly, he thinks, UC Riverside is. It feels like a good educational choice, not just a passing fancy.
So, thank you all so much for helping us with these decisions. You really, really did. I mean, seriously, it’s pretty remarkable how valuable College Confidential and you all were in our process from beginning to end. I’m so very grateful.
Congratulations on the decision!!
Congratulations on the decision!
Awesome!!!
Congratulations to your family! I hope you let us know how he’s doing.
It sounds like a good result for you. Any talk of college ROI has to begin and end with graduating, and if he’s more comfortable there and closer to support it’ll really help his chances of staying the course. Best of luck!