<p>I'm from New York and I kind of want to go to California for college. Can anyone recommend some good colleges that either give lots of need based aid or merit aid? I don't want to go to a school where kids aren't passionate about an education but I can't afford 55,000 a year :/.</p>
<p>Will you be a recruited athlete for swimming?</p>
<p>I swim but I’m not good enough to be recruited.</p>
<p>I feel you there swimfreak. What else are traits you’re looking for in a university, other than location?</p>
<p>I want a school that is neither super small nor super large ( Amount of students). A nice, defined campus. Selective. Lots of clubs and athletics. Great academics (specifically physical sciences).</p>
<p>how good are your grades? not all schools give out great need-based aid.</p>
<p>if they are really really great, check out (obviously) stanford, as well as pomona and claremont mckenna, and also USC.</p>
<p>if they are pretty good check out pepperdine and occidental.</p>
<p>if you are into engineering caltech and hmc.</p>
<p><em>edit</em>
oops just saw your last post… sounds like stanford or USC if you want the athletics.</p>
<p>Stanford and its < $100k family income, full tuition (break) program. Now, all you have to do is get in. Piece of cake, lol.</p>
<p>I have a weighted average over a 100. Unweighted is somewhere from 98.7-99.2. I took the act in the fall and got a 29 :/. Been taking practice SATs getting around a 2100. Is USC good among various fields? Including biochem/premed? Also Stanford would be ideal but it is very hard to get into.</p>
<p>USC is awesome, and you are on the borderline gpa but right in there with sat. Forget UCLA and Cal–too big. Assuming you like the beach area as you swim, try University of San Diego and UCSD. Agree with Santa Clara and Pepperdine for campus but not known for sciences. You might like Irvine for premed, too. Pomona and the Claremont Colleges would be your most selective here next to USC. Good luck!</p>
<p>A lot of people seem to be mentioning USC. You said that you were not interested in a super large school, which I think in some ways USC is. The number of undergrads and graduates on campus is pretty large, especially with the relatively compact campus. At the same time however, it boasts small class sizes, and the athletic events (especially the football games) are loads of fun. You might want to visit the campus (which is stunning) depending on why you don’t want a large school. I didn’t think it was a problem at all, but there are definitely a lot of people at USC. </p>
<p>Just food for thought.</p>
<p>[California</a> Colleges - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/california-colleges/]California”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/california-colleges/)</p>
<p>2011: do you mean borderline for acceptance or merit scholarship?<br>
Also I’m not looking at the state universities because they would be too expensive without aid which I’m assuming they don’t have much for oos students.
How big is USC in terms of population? Cornell is big but I liked that size, I just don’t want like 30000 students. Also is the campus very central and prominent? Or is it just a bunch of random buildings all over LA?</p>
<p>Update: new SAT is 2050 (math 700, reading 710, writing 640). Taking one more time to get all 700s… Do I qualify for merit at any good schools in Cali?</p>
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<p>USC’s student population (~36,000) is slightly higher than that of Berkeley’s student population (~35,000), and slightly lower than that of UCLA’s student population (~38,000). However, USC has more graduate students and fewer undergraduate students (though ~17,000 is still a lot of undergraduate students).</p>
<p>What net cost after non-loan financial aid can you afford?</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO is about $33,000 per year for out of state students.</p>
<p>If you happen to get USC’s full or even half tuition scholarship, I’d jump on that opportunity.</p>
<p>^ I would love a half or full scholarship, but are my stats high enough for that? I don’t think they are :/</p>
<p>A half scholarship is provided automatically for NMF. I think half and full are also provided via an interview and that whole selection process. It’s worth a shot; a majority the people at my high school applying to USC got interviews for the scholarship.</p>
<p>My first thought was USC, as others have mentioned.</p>
<p>Perhaps liberal arts universities would be the way to go for you. I suggest you to consider Chapman University, a mid-size, private liberal arts university with small class sizes, located in Orange County, California. They have excellent merit-aid scholarships and grants. Sounds like you might qualify if you get admitted there. From what I’ve heard, they also have an excellent pre-med or pre-health advising program. Good luck!</p>