I am a community college student and will be applying to transfer to a four year soon. The schools I would like to apply to our UC’s in California and I am considering applying to one or two of the Universities in Colorado, such as Boulder or Colorado Springs. My big problem with this is tuition payments. I am a former foster youth and I’m emancipated so schools will use my income for determining what I qualify for. That said I believe I will qualify for the UC’s blue and gold program which I believe means tuition and fees are covered. This is a huge grace as I, like many, will have no family help for college. However, the state of Colorado and the schools there look amazing. I would really like to attend but I know that financials have to be considered more than my own enjoyment. Anyway, my question is really people personal advice or experiences on similar circumstances. How did you choose? What did you choose? What were your deciding factors? Did you regret your choice?
You will not get enough financial aid from the Colorado state schools to afford it. Don’t bother applying.
If you want to change your residency permanently and continue college in a different state, are you willing to take a year off from school and live/work in that state to establish residency before resuming classes? Your status should allow you to do that even though you’re presumably not yet 24.
If so, then look into what your financial aid as a resident would look like. But know that there will likely be no way for you to start next fall at a public university in a new state.
If you could get accepted to a private university in a different state, and get enough need-based aid that it would be affordable, then you wouldn’t have to worry about the residency issue. But it’s a relatively small and competitive subset of private U’s that give full-need-met aid to transfer students. What’s your major, and your undergrad GPA so far?
Go to school in California and move to Colorado after you graduate.
Each college has a net price calculator on its web site to estimate financial aid and net price (after subtracting grants from the list price).
As a California resident, you should expect that the net prices at the UCs will be a lot better (lower) than at Colorado public universities. It is unlikely that Colorado public universities will be affordable.
My daughter was drawn to Colorado too. She loves the mountain aesthetic, National Parks, and the idea of going somewhere new and exotic to her.
But Colorado was unaffordable. We had a lot of talks about how being debt free for college would allow her much more freedom to live how she wanted afterward. She can go to CO after graduation when it can be a more permanent move (and not have to move home over summers). I told her college semesters are about 32 months of her life- is it worth hocking the next 10+ years of it? So she’s in Missouri, 90 miles from home but thriving and loving college life. (Side note, she’s going to do a summer class with her school that spends two weeks in CO in May. Yay!)
In your case you only have two years to get through before you are done and can move somewhere else to live and work. Go for the free tuition no doubt!