<p>Hopefully you’ll keep an open mind on the colleges as some posters here have very strong biased opinions on particular schools vs others as if they have expertise on every one of them. There are obviously a lot of different colleges for a reason - different people are seeking different attributes and have different desires. The geographic area of the state and the part of the city the colleges are in is important to most people and this alone can help narrow some down which is why the visit is worthwhile.</p>
<p>The cost of attendance for each of them is usually easily found on the college’s website but you probably already know that. The OOS cost of the UCs is high and with merit scholarships and need based grants some privates can end up to be less expensive but that’s not usually known until the awards actually arrive after being offered admission.</p>
<p>*The OOS cost of the UCs is high and with merit scholarships and need based grants some privates can end up to be less expensive *</p>
<p>Most definitely.</p>
<p>If this students stats are very high and/or she’s a NMF, then USC would give her a 1/2 tuition scholarship…which would make it noticeably cheaper than $50k for a UC.</p>
<p>Similarly, if the student got good merit from Santa Clara, it would be cheaper than a UC.</p>
<p>No need to visit Caltech unless the student asks to visit Caltech. It’s the kind of place where people know in advance that they want that kind of educational experience. And I say this as a huge fan of the place. It’s a lovely campus, right next to San Marino, but no need to spend tourist time there. </p>
<p>The Huntington Gardens and Library are spectacular. The outdoor features are the real attraction for most people. There’s a buffet tea, but you’d do better to skip that and head to the Chado Tea Room in Old Pasadena. Not that you’ll be touring Caltech, but Pasadena is on the way out to Claremont, so it might be a nice place to stop for an afternoon.</p>
<p>^^grow up it goes on everywhere especially at UC’s. At least Reggie wasn’t taking the money for himself, it went to his family.</p>
<p>if you want to know how wide spread it is read this: </p>
<p>"We paid quarterback Ryan Fien while he was at UCLA, and when he transferred to Idaho in 1996 we kept paying him. We gave Bruce Walker and Vaughn Parker of UCLA money too</p>
<p>and don’t forget USC beat Oklahoma for the national championship fair and square. On the field everything was fair. What Reggie did with an agent for his family really had nothing to do with USC other than the fact that the NCAA wants universities to police these kids.</p>
<p>Even though USC has had clear ethical problems with the way it runs some of its sports teams, I wouldn’t let that get in the way of considering it and dismissing that U for most of the students who frankly will have little to no contact with the team other than to maybe go to some of the games. For example I don’t think it has any impact on their excellent engineering department, humanities department, etc. If you’re a potential football player who can be impacted by these antics then it’s worth considering going elsewhere unless convinced USC has cleaned up their act but that’s a very small number of students.</p>
<p>^^like the other person cited in the NCAA penalty, the USC woman tennis player who’s coach gave her a $70 pre paid phone card, paid for on a USC account, so she could call her parents in Romanian or wherever the heck it was. Evidently that’s a huge NCAA violation, if you’re USC. </p>
<p>what some people label as “ethical problems” I call caring and compassionate. </p>
<p>Pete Carroll and his staff didn’t offer anything to high school players to come to USC, other than Marcus Allen picking you up for your official at LAX, in his Lamborghini! A few top talents at many football schools are enticed by pro-agents their junior and senior year who are all about the NFL signing bonus, that’s pro football, not college football or their staff.</p>
<p>it’s very American to hate on winners as you aspire to be one yourself.</p>
<p>^^ To demonstrate how little I care about their sports - I don’t know the details other than that the NCAA decided there was enough of an issue (I guess including allegations of a house being given to parents of the student/player) to sanction the team for 2 years which is something anyone who planned to play football for them should consider but again, I don’t see how that has any effect on the actual academics at USC.</p>
<p>Just as I think it’s shortsighted to pick a college based on its football/bball team for a student who isn’t a player, unless it’s very important to them to be at a college with the ‘winning team’ (and I realize that’s important to some, but not most students), I also think it’d be shortsighted to dismiss attending a college because of something like this if it has no direct effect on the student.</p>
<p>“allegations of a house being given to parents of the student/player”</p>
<p>they’re not allegations that’s exactly what Reggie’s financially poor parents got. But USC didn’t give it to them a professional sports agent did, and in return the sports agent got a multi million dollar fee when Reggie signed with an NFL team.</p>
<p>USC got in trouble because an assistant USC coach heard/knew that it was going down and didn’t do anything, didn’t call the NCAA and ruin Reggie’s life. So one employee at USC has concern for a 19 year old black kid from the hood and now everyone from Cal and UCLA who has been beaten badly by most USC teams for decades jumps on the bandwagon of accusing USC as unethical.</p>
<p>meanwhile it’s well known and documented that Cal and UCLA football players have taken money from agents but the NCAA doesn’t really care because no one is watching those schools because those schools lose, consistently</p>
I don’t think that’s exactly happening pacheight. You seem to have a real chip on your shoulder about all of this and have some fairly extreme views of USC vs UCB and UCLA - I don’t know why and don’t really care. </p>
<p>It really has nothing to do with the OP’s thread and I only responded in support of not knocking USC academics based on what the NCAA concluded against USC sports. They really have nothing to do with each other and for many people the college sports are a minor amusement at best anyway such as how it was kind of amusing when UCLA knocked USC out of the running in football a few years ago. ;)</p>
<p>^^they have everything to do with each other. why do you think Harvard has a great rowing team or Duke has a great basketball team or USC has a great football team or Stanford has a great everything team. Performance, focus, practice, commitment, resilience, talent, and intelligence makes a great athlete and a great student. that’s why top privates out perform publics in the arena of human development. And that’s why sports are important to real top schools.</p>
<p>Try as they can with mega amounts of tax payer money public schools just can’t put it together. So, it’s weak to hold up places like UCLA and Cal as equals to top private schools. And it misleads a lot of parents and students as to what is best.</p>
<p>Okay pacheight - if the USC football team beating a UC football team means that much to you, then fine, but here’s some news - it doesn’t mean a thing to a lot of people and many of us think it’s a ridiculous reason to select a college - I doubt the major draw to Harvard is their rowing team of all things.</p>
<p>As a lifetime California residence, please DO consider the UCs. We welcome your full pay student!</p>
<p>I’ve done 3 California school road trips - 1 for myself and 2 with my sons. I’ve lived in LA and Northern California. Here’s my 2c</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Think of Southern California as one state and Northern California as another. The cultures are very different.</p></li>
<li><p>From the list of schools, it may be good for her to get a sense as to whether she wants urban - (Berkeley, UCLA, USC) or suburban (Stanford, San Diego, Claremont Colleges) or small city/suburban (Santa Barbara)</p></li>
<li><p>I would start in San Diego and go North. </p></li>
<li><p>Here’s one possible itinerary:
a) Fly to San Diego. Rent a car. Visit UCSD. Time permitting, visit some sites.
b) Visit Claremont colleges and drive to LA.
c) Spend night in LA. Visit UCLA and/or USC. Time permitting go to the Getty Musuem, LACMA, Santa Monica, or Hollywood
d) Take day trip to Santa Barbara.
e) Fly from LA to Oakland. Rent car
f) Visit UCB. Time permitting hang out in Berkeley/Oakland/SF. Stay overnight.
g) Visit Stanford. Drive to SFO and fly home.</p></li>
<li><p>Unless she is very interested in Santa Barbara, I would drop that from the list as it requires driving about 2 hours north and then heading back to LA. You could consider a visit to UCSC instead to add another Northern California school. Another option is UC Davis (large school; big college town feel)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Parking in Berkeley is not too bad if you don’t mind a few blocks walk. Pay attention to all street signs and rules or you will be making a donation to the City of Berkeley. Metered street parking is expensive, but you can pay with a credit card. Downtown Berkeley, the Campus, and Telegraph Ave. have a number of parking garages. I usually park at the far end of Telegraph Avenue on a side street and just walk to campus.</p>
<p>Driving and Parking in San Francisco can be horrendous. There are a few decent parking lots (eg The Sutter Stockton Garage). If you are just going to SF for a jolly, its much beter to take BART from Berkeley/Oakland say to go to shopping at Union Square or to the Museums near 3rd and Mission.</p>
<p>As a lifetime California residence, please DO consider the UCs. We welcome your full pay student!</p>
<p>LOL…</p>
<p>But…are they worth $50k per year?</p>
<p>that said, since the OP mentioned concerns about funds for the campus visits, I wonder if they are under the misapprehension that the UCs give financial aid to OOS students…mostly they do not. They mostly expect OOS kids to be full-pay or near-full-pay. The UCs depend heavily on Cal Grants for their Calif residents. And, since Blue and Gold promise doesn’t apply to OOS kids, there is no motivation to give OOS kids much aid.</p>
<p>The Claremont Consortium is wonderful, in my opinion,and well worth visiting if the student is interested in : small liberal arts schools and/or an amazing engineering/science school. You can drive out to Claremont in about an hour from LA, depending on traffic. You can also fly into the Ontario airport which is five minutes from the consortium. It’s small and easy to get in and out of.
Parking around Berkley should be okay, although you might find the area a bit confusing. The tour includes a lot of toiling up and down hills. (We skipped the info session.)
Hanging around Berk is fun too - take public transport into SF from Berk if you want to tourist around. It will be easier and modestly entertaining.
Stanford is lovely, and so is the town.
Being almost entirely uninterested in watching sports or how a college ranks in sports, I have little to say. If you aren’t into sports, then you might not want a college at which they are a major social activity.</p>
<p>OP: it’s been publicly announced, that the policy revenue strategy of the UC Regents is to increase admissions of out of state applicants to raise money! This really makes California residents unhappy, as it should, since the UC System founding charter states the schools are only for California residents…but charters don’t mean much when something is owned by the government. California is in deep deep financial trouble so the Regents know they have to privatize their top schools or they will fail. So the privatizing of the UC’s is well underway. Cal will top $40,000 a year within 5 years, already over 30k, and everything from lab fees to your graduation gown is extra. And all departments have been told to fundraise from alum, UC’s calling alum for money…sounds like a private school. Of course they won’t get much money because UC’s can not give preferential treatment to legacies, it’s a classic government mess, fundraise but we can’t help donors kids…they are all mixed up over there. And as a Cal family it’s embarrassing and it’s sad.</p>
<p>Which means if you’re from out of state it’ll be expensive.</p>
<p>I don’t know about Claremont but USC and Stanford are very generous with academic, athletic, and needs based scholarships/grants. Someone mentioned Santa Clara, I’d throw that in the mix as well, I know a lot of successful people who attended Santa Clara!</p>
<p>Oh, and to a rower the ONLY draw at Harvard is their team and their team, both women and men, have been losing. So where are the 4.0, 2300 SAT, world class rowers going? Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. Cal is a distant 5th on the list and most of the rowers are way under ivy academic requirements, that’s why they are at Cal.</p>
<p>Down here in the Southeast, the SEC is king. Most kids want to go to SEC schools, even the academically oriented students. And the majority of SEC schools are public flagships–Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, etc. Vanderbilt is the only private school in the SEC.</p>
<p>“Private school” is not exactly a dirty word, but more for the reason that they are not really on many people’s radar. Vanderbilt and Duke are two of the better known private schools, but they don’t have great football teams.</p>