<p>My daughter got $10,000 Regent’s Scholarship to University of the Pacific, however that still left a hefty sum that wouldn’t be afforadable without loans. She got $20,000 from USC, but again, that was a drop in the bucket compared to the total cost of attendance. Fortunately, we’re able to pay for her education at Cal Poly SLO. We don’t expect her to have take out any loans. *That *will probably happen in grad school! </p>
<p>**Boomie wrote:</p>
<p>Private colleges in California that offer merit aid would be Occidental, University of Redlands, Santa Clara, University of San Diego, University of San Francisco…I’m sure there are others.**</p>
<p>My California kid ( similar SAT, but no where near your sons GPA) wants to stay in California, but we are also looking in Washington and Oregon. That mail works!</p>
<p>*My son was ELC and accepted to UCLA, UCSD, and UCSB. We did not qualify for any need based aid (EFC was 64,000) but he was offered a 2000 Regents scholarship at UCSD and 6000 at UCSB. *</p>
<p>What were his test scores? I imagine that they quite high. I don’t think you can get Regents with an ACT 30.</p>
<p>*Son #1 went to a CC and transferred to Cal State Northridge **and is a senior. <a href=“Computer%20engineering”>/B</a>. We have managed to pay for that so far. (About 12K a year including room and board).</p>
<p>Son #2 is applying to UCLA, UCSD and Cal Poly. (So far) Any of those would be about 25K per year with room and board. A commute to UCSD would be around 40 minutes. So that is an option. And a CC is still an option also. I think his first choice is UCSD, second Cal Poly and third UCLA. He’s not sure he can get into UCLA anyway. *</p>
<p>Since your older son will be graduating, your EFC will be high for son #2. Also, I think you’ll only be able to count 3 in the household since older son is graduating (others can correct me). </p>
<p>So, with an income of about $105 and a household of 3, your EFC may be around $21k. It would be more if the college savings is in your son’s name. </p>
<p>A UC has a COA of about $25k per year (tuition (aka fees), room, board, and books). So, you’d have to pay all of that with your EFC plus a student loan.</p>
<p>Since son #1 went to a CC first, does that mean that he was able to split his college savings over 2 years?</p>
<p>How much are you comfortably able to pay each year (not counting the $5k per year from college savings for son #2?)</p>
<p>An observation…the list of suggestions ranges from Stanford to Univ. of Redlands. I know money is a primary consideration but the OP might also want to consider whether her kid is a “happy where planted type.”
Both of mine went for merit money and were at the top academically. They are both the happy where planted type. Not all kids are…</p>
<p>An observation…the list of suggestions ranges from Stanford to Univ. of Redlands. I know money is a primary consideration but the OP might also want to consider whether her kid is a “happy where planted type.”
Both of mine went for merit money and were at the top academically. They are both the happy where planted type. Not all kids are…</p>
<p>I feel a little silly that I don’t know what EFC means. Yes, son #1 had just about enough for both junior and senior year from his college fund.</p>
<p>Oh, we could probably contribute $500 a month to his college costs if we had to. Looks like I better do some math. Now we are looking at other states. He is sorta interested now. This board was an eye opener. Thanks mom2</p>
<p>Don’t forget Cal Poly Pomona. Good engineering program, becoming more and more a residential campus thanks to President Ortiz. If you haven’t toured it you should. Should be slightly more affordable that SLO and the UC’s.</p>
<p>*I feel a little silly that I don’t know what EFC means</p>
<p>Oh, we could probably contribute $500 a month to his college costs if we had to. Looks like I better do some math.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>EFC means Expected Family Contribution. This comes from FAFSA. With an income of $105,000, your EFC will be about $21k. </p>
<p>One way to “reduce” your EFC is to go to a school where the merit scholarship is big enough that the remaining costs are less than EFC. </p>
<p>Small or medium-sized merit scholarships won’t reduce your expected family contribution. If a school costs $35k, but only gives you $7k in merit and a $7k in student loans and work-study, you’d still be expected to pay $21k per year.</p>
<p>Your older son got around your high EFC by going to a CC for two years, and then going to a Cal State which had a cost much lower than your EFC.</p>
<p>We live near you and have a DS in his freshman year at Ohio State. Based on the experience at my son’s h.s. students did well for merit aid at University of Redlands and Loyola Marymount. I don’t know if they have a C.S. degree. Based on our experience we found out of state private and state schools gave a ton more merit aid. My son’s grades were lower than your son’s but his SAT was slightly higher. Such scores got him a full merit ride at Ohio State and an almost full ride at another state school. Your son would qualify for admission in the Honors College which allows him to register before other students thereby guaranteeing he would graduate in 4 years. Plus Ohio State accepted all of my son’s AP credits which meant he was just one class shy of being a sophmore. In addition he has 3 advisors which his friends at UC’s said really would not happen there. He received mailings from Auburn Iowa New Mexico and Alabama saying that his stats would qualify him for full merit scholarships from those schools. Ohio State currently has a push for increasing their out of state enrollment so they are offering great scholarships to California students. We never thought we would be paying nothing for my Ds to attend college. By the way my Ds loves Ohio State and finds it a “small school.” </p>
<p>With respect to private out of state schools my Ds got merit scholarships at most schools he was accepted to. It was not our original intent for him to go to school outside of California but with the California budget woes and the Regents raising tution and fees all the time it just made more sense to look outside of California. We read this blog [The</a> College Solution Blog by Lynn O’Shaughnessy](<a href=“http://thecollegesolutionblog.com/]The”>http://thecollegesolutionblog.com/) and found the info very help. The author writes for MoneyWatch on CBS. Since she lives by us I called her and talked to her about my son’s options. She said to go where you get the most money. So being from California here is my advice:</p>
<ol>
<li>Have your Ds apply early. Many colleges have earlier deadlines if you want to be in the running for merit scholarships. I know applications for some schools have to be in by Nov. 1/Nov. 15 or Dec. 1 to be considered for merit scholarships eventhough the application deadline is Jan. 1/Jan. 15.</li>
</ol>
<p>2.Look into the Western College Exchange Program. [Western</a> Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) | Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education](<a href=“http://wiche.edu/wue]Western”>Save On Tuition | Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE))
I am not completely familiar with the program but I understand that you can attend an out of state college at a discounted rate. California participates in the program.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Have your son check his emails and mail to see if he has received any “priority applications.” These applications are shortened (usually no essay or recommendation) the schools waive the application fee; they will tell you of their decision within 2 weeks and usually they have some merit money to go with them. My Ds used a couple of those applications and got 100K from one school.</p></li>
<li><p>Do the research to see what schools will give merit money for your son’s stats. I know there are a few posts here on CC but do other research. See if you can talk him into applying to a few of those schools. One place to get started is meritaid.com</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I second the suggestion to look at Oregon and Washington schools. University of Oregon is sometimes called UC Eugene because there are so many California students there. The tuition was almost the same as a UC when my son was there a few years back. He may qualify for the honors college there, and that is a really nice program.</p>
<p>The WUE program, while excellent on paper, has become more limited in the past couple of years with respect to the number of students accepted and GPA/test score cut-offs. In theory a student from one of the member states can attend any out of state college in the program for 150% of the in-state tuition. For California students, this brings the cost down quite a bit when considering colleges in WA and OR. However, not all majors are eligible; engineering is particularly limited at some colleges.</p>
<p>The University of Oregon no longer accepts California students into the program; the students from CA are now full pay.</p>
<p>*My son’s grades were lower than your son’s but his SAT was slightly higher. Such scores got him a full merit ride at Ohio State and an almost full ride at another state school. Your son would qualify for admission in the Honors College which allows him to register before other students thereby guaranteeing he would graduate in 4 years. Plus Ohio State accepted all of my son’s AP credits which meant he was just one class shy of being a sophomore. In addition he has 3 advisors which his friends at UC’s said really would not happen there. He received mailings from Auburn, Iowa, New Mexico, and Alabama saying that his stats would qualify him for full merit scholarships from those schools. *</p>
<p>I think a clarification is needed. This student was a National Hispanic Scholar, so some of his full ride offers would be related to that.</p>
<p>We found that the public schools in CA don’t offer much aid. Even though the cost looks higher for private schools, they tend to offer more money (this goes for schools everywhere, not just in CA) and the final cost is often much less than a public. Don’t let the cost keep him from applying to potential privates- you might be surprised at what you get.</p>
<p>The WUE program is great, if you meet the requirements. Too bad about U of Oregon. Lots of Cali kids love Oregon and are surprised to find out they are no longer allowing in kids for the discounted rate. Too bad.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s 150% of tuition. That’s what makes it a great deal for those who want to travel out of state for a good education. </p>
<p>It’s often hard to get residency, and this makes those schools affordable. With the budget crisis in California, it also has helped those students who took the initiative a year or two ago. I am assuming that they are still honoring the WUE rate for those returning sophomores from Cali at U or Oregon, but incoming freshman will be paying full freight.</p>
He is sorta interested now. This board was an eye opener. Thanks mom2</p>