S is a senior. He applied to his #1 choice Cal Poly Pomona. His GPA is 2.93. Major is Computer Science which is impacted.
Should we have him apply to #2 or #3 choice or goes to Community College and transfer in?
Additional Info-We are not paying for college, we do not qualify for aid. He will need to work to pay for it all.
Thanks.
If unsure, he should apply to the other choices as well, so that he can take his time deciding through April (if he is admitted to those other choices).
Check http://www.assist.org to see which community colleges have the best coverage of the frosh/soph courses for CS at the desired target CSUs and UCs.
If he wants to attend Cal Poly Pomona and only CPP, then going the CCC route might be better.
What is his eligibility index? (CSU GPA x 800) + (SAT Math + CR) or (CSU GPA x 200) + (ACT comp x10)
It is possible for him to get into some of the other Cal states (Non-impacted campuses) for CS.
Here is a chart to help.
https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf
Thank you @ucbalumnus . We had not thought about that.
@Gumbymom Not sure what his numbers are now. I will look into that when I get home. Thank you.
When you say you are not paying for college, do you mean that you will provide no money at all? Will you allow S to live at home and commute to your local CC or university? Will you pay for car expenses, insurance, cell phone, and the like?
If you do not qualify for need based aid, the only money available will be federal loans. If he can live at home, he could likely afford a CC with just the loans and work. Once he transfers to a CSU or UC, however, there is too much of a gap between the loan amount and the COA, especially if he can no longer commute.
@LVKris we will allow him to live at home. We will most likely pay for insurance, and cell phone since we already pay for that. We will get him a car but he will need to pay for gas.
We are drilling the no loans on him.
Ideally we would like to see him work while he is in school and pay for it cash.
Yikes, you are hamstringing every way you can. Are you trying to make sure he can’t complete his degree? Working more than 12 hours a week is going to hamper success in a CS program. Does he have a job now and skills to make that much money? Jobs for kids his age are not always easy to come by but if he can find something full time in summer great. If he can’t find a campus job, commuting to one will eat up even more time. Student loans in the modest amounts allowed in his own name are a federal entitlement with favorable terms.
Factor into the CC to CPP route a couple of things likely it could take 3 years to get your classes lined up and transfer and possibly extra time at CSU too. Now CPP has a 4 year graduation guarantee if they follow the program, I believe. That’s a couple extra years at home and not making programming bank. Unless he has/gets coding skills and can do that for the p/t job.
If you subsidize his living and commuting expenses, then the yearly price of tuition and books would likely be:
CC: about $3,000
CSU: about $8,500
UC: about $14,500
If he attends college full time, a part time job could probably pay for CC, but CSU or UC without loans would be a stretch at best. After he does his first two years at CC, he may have to attend a CSU part time, or alternate school semesters/quarters with time off from school to work, in order to earn enough to pay the school costs without loans. Expect him to take a lot longer than four years to graduate in this case.
With only federal direct loans (up to $7,500 per year for junior and senior years), he could attend a CSU within commuting range full time and work part time to cover the rest.
If he gets good paying jobs in the summers, then it may be possible to avoid the loans, but that is not something that can be relied on at this time.
If he is unable to get admitted to a local CSU or UC, then the cost would be higher since additional living expenses would be incurred (even if you contribute the amount you are currently spending on him at home).
@Parentco2016: It is unrealistic to expect your son to pay for college himself these days especially if you want hime to get out of an undergrad program within 6 years. Since you do not qualify for aid, then you must make a decent income. I really do not mean to judge, but why have children, expect them to go to college and then not help when you have the means???
@gumbymom his eligibility index is 3300.
He knew that we were not in a position to pay for college since his sophomore year. He knew his job was to get good grades and apply for scholarships. We are of the mind set that college is a privilege not a right. My husband and I do not have a degree, but we are doing well enough to not be able to qualify for aid. My husband is an HVAC tech adult high school graduate with on the job training, and I am a bookkeeper with some college. We are an example of “success” without a degree. We want him to earn his way, and as a parent our job is to support him. That is why I am finding alternatives of paying for it rather than him going into debt for it. Student debt rate is ridiculous in this country, if we can avoid that by having him take longer to finish his degree then so be in. You might think we are “bad” parents for choosing not pay for college, but in our community the fact that he is even graduating from high school makes us “good” parents.
I would appreciate any answers I get for my original question:
Should we have him apply to choice #2 or even #3 or go to Community College and transfer in to his #1 choice?
Additional Info-We are not paying for college, we do not qualify for aid. He will need to work to pay for it all. Thanks. <<<
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Then he has NO CHOICE but to start at a local CC. I think that you’re living in some dream world that thinks he could pay for college w/o loans and w/o your help.
He will HAVE to go to a CC and while he’s there, work as much as he can w/o hurting grades and SAVE to pay for when he’s able to transfer. He will likely have to take out some loans for the last two years.
The alarm is ringing…it’s time to wake up.
@mom2coIIegekids thank you. That would be my choice too. This is helpful.
Remember, if he graduates late, he will delay starting jobs with higher pay than what he can find with only a high school diploma. A small amount of debt to graduate on time is likely to be less than the extra earnings he will make by starting college graduate jobs earlier, though there are no guarantees.
“Small” means no more than federal direct loans. The student debt problems mainly afflict those with much larger loans (parent cosigned, or for low ranked law school or other post graduate study of dubious value), or those using them for dubious schools (often for profit ones) where both learning and employer credibility is low.
Your current no loan constraint means that only CC followed by slow pace (part time or alternating school and work terms) at CSU is realistic to plan for. Plan for him to take six or more years.
UCB makes a good point. If your son is able to graduate in CS, then getting into the work world at a high salary is more important than avoiding $20k total in loans. That’s just good sense.
Starting out at a CC is a good idea anyway. His grades suggest that he might not make it thru all the math, etc, that’s required for CS.
@ucbalumnus thank you. We did not know about the small federal direct loans. We would prefer for him not get any debt, but I agree that $27,000 in debt is better than having him delay his graduation date.
Can he use federal direct loans in community college?
I guess that is an alternative we can add to the table.
Thanks.
@mom2coIIegekids Yes USB makes good sense, it’s an option we had not even thought about.
My son is good in Math, his is currently taking statistics.
Starting out at a good CC is a fine idea. But going full time to community college is a full time job. Lots of posters here are going to say that having a 20 or 30 hour a week job while going to school full time is possible, and they or their children have done it. To be sure, it’s possible, but it’s difficult, and most students who try to do it do not succeed.
Computer Science is a tough, time-consuming major. If your son hasn’t managed to get a 3.0 in high school, he will have a difficult time managing a full course load in computer science as well as working 20 to 30 hours a week. By requiring him to pay for his own college, you’re strewing boulders in any already rocky path.
I didn’t think a student with a 2.93 would be a likely candidate for acceptance at Cal Poly. Other posters, am I wrong about that?
Are Pomona or either of his other two options within commuting distance? If so, the community college route would allow your son to work his way through school and graduate with no or minimal student loans. Your son should be able to cover the $3,000/year expense for tuition and books by working part-time throughout the school year and full-time during the summer break. That would leave him with $17,000 for tuition and books his final two years at the local CSU. He could probably earn about $7,000 of that working part-time during those two years, leaving him with $10k in student loans.
If $10k in student loans is more than your family feels comfortable with, your son could consider working full-time for a year before entering community college. A year’s worth of full-time work would give your son the extra $10k he needs (and maybe even a little more). Your son would probably have to work two part-time jobs to get 40 hours/week, but this might be a good thing in the long run. Hard work at an entry level job can be a great motivator.
Of course, this plan assumes your son would be able to gain admission into the CS program at the local CSU when he transfers in as a junior. If you haven’t already done so, speak with someone at your local community college about California’s Transfer Admission Guarantee / Transfer Admission Agreement program. Can your son earn guaranteed admission into the CS program at Pomona or any of the local CSUs? If so, the transfer route would offer a secure and affordable way to get your son into the CS program at his top choice.
You should have apply to his no. 2 & 3 choices. If they are also Cal States, that’s easy since it is the same application. He can apply to CC over the summer if none of his 4 year choices work out.
I do hope you are willing to file a FAFSA for him even though you are not willing to pay. He may well qualify for some kind of financial aid, and he won’t be eligible if you don’t file a FAFSA. Good luck to him.