<p>
</p>
<p>Thanks, M2CK, I meant to included that since my data on that is 10+ years ago! But, it was still “the hardest year ever” even back then in admissions.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>lol…</p>
<p>“hardest year ever”??? Don’t you think that the med school app process that both our kids have gone thru were the hardest years ever? I can now breathe! (best continued wishes for your D)</p>
<p>We left northern CA 10 years ago for the ALL the reasons OP has posted about COL and COA at UCs and CSUs. Moved to NC, much better.</p>
<p>But more on topic, do the CCs in CA still offer the 2+2 plan for a specific UC? So attending a CA UC on a set plan (used to be IGETC) would guarantee admittance to a specific UC that might have been difficult or impossible to get into as a freshman or pay for for all 4 years…</p>
<p>So maybe an option would be to have daughter attend the CC with a plan to transfer to UCLA or Cal or UCSD for the last two years to bring down the cost but still obtain a great education from one of these UCs?</p>
<p>Or do you live close enough to a UC where she could commute for some of the years again bringing down the cost? I know this is not necessarily what she was “dreaming” of, but your family should reap some benefit of sticking it out in CA!!</p>
<p>Heck I moved, as a single mom, 5 kiddos from CA to NC in an old truck and a Uhual. 4 of the 5 were all high school students at the time and not happy I pulled them out of school and move 3000 miles away. Heard about it for MONTHS!</p>
<p>But they are all now happy college grads and in grad school with little to no debt and went to schools they were very happy with. Being in NC there are a plethora of “financial and academic safeties” especially for med school and grad school. Gotta love that in-state tuition!</p>
<p>CA does have extremely great prices for their CC and some of the CSUs. Cal Poly SLO has some of the best programs in their field, animal science, aeronautical engineering, architectural engineering (hard to find), poultry science…</p>
<p>Try and look at it as finding new treasures, and finding them requires diligent research. And of course, us here on CC!!!</p>
<p>Middle daughter attended an OOS public UNM on their Amigo scholarship which I think your daughter would be eligible for. Not too far from you but a different experience to be sure. USC (south carolina) also offers some, but they are more difficult now…wander over to the scholie threads and many will assist.</p>
<p>Good luck, and don’t overlook some treasures in your own backyard. (Univ of Santa Clara comes to mind)</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is called the Transfer Admission Guarantee:
[Transfer</a> Admission Guarantee | UC Admissions](<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/guarantee/]Transfer”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/guarantee/)
Note: IGETC is a breadth requirement pattern that CC students can fulfill in lieu of the breadth requirements at UCs and CSUs that they transfer to in most cases.</p>
<p>However, Berkeley and UCLA do not offer TAG, and UCSD will be discontinuing it (and currently does not offer guarantee into the major of choice).</p>
<p>^^^yall have to be happy we are all done with med school apps!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Do any of the other UCs still offer it? Maybe UC Davis, UCSB?
When will UCSD be ending it?</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>But more on topic, do the CCs in CA still offer the 2+2 plan for a specific UC? So attending a CA UC on a set plan (used to be IGETC) would guarantee admittance to a specific UC that might have been difficult or impossible to get into as a freshman or pay for for all 4 years…</p>
<p>The CCs have TAG which is kind of what you’re describing. Students spend 2 years at a CC and then 2 years at a UC. However, UCLA and Cal don’t participate in TAG.</p>
<p>I don’t think this student is willing to start at a CC. Frankly, if she ends up with the right M+CR SAT (or high ACT) she can find an affordable school. </p>
<p>OP…What is your D’s career goal and intended major? </p>
<p>Also, have her take the ACT. Some do better on that and schools will award merit money based on whichever is the highest. Have her do an ACT practice test first to familiarize herself.</p>
<p>Yes, Kat, the other UCs have TAG.</p>
<p>(best continued wishes to Kat’s med school son and other high achieving kids. OP…many of us have kids who’ve already gone thru undergrad and are now in med/grad school. We know that you don’t have to go to an elite school to have a successful career.)</p>
<p>OP…the state of California has a good community college system with articulation agreements with four year universities. If your not able to pay for college any other way, are not willing to help your daughter adjust her college list to include those with merit aid, or can’t otherwise figure out how to pay the household bills and college, the community college option IS one to explore.</p>
<p>Colleges are going to look at your income and your wife’s income first and foremost as you are the custodial parents. You have a VERY high income. The only federally funded aid you will receive will be an unsubsidized Direct Loan. </p>
<p>You mention the Profile schools. Their need based aid is SOMETIMES more generous, but typically not to families with incomes in the $250,000 a year range.</p>
<p>The colleges will not care about your cost of living, lifestyle expenses, and many of the other things you are trying to bring into the picture. Colleges award NEED based aid to students whose families have financial need primarily based on family INCOME. Others have said this over and over…but you don’t seem to want to believe that $250,000 in income will be considered out of the realm of significant (or in most cases any) need based aid…which is for families with far lower incomes. FAR LOWER!</p>
<p>Your daughter is a junior. She has ample time, with your help and guidance, to find a number of schools where she can garner MERIT aid which does not consider your income. This will not be HYPSM…they don’t give merit aid.</p>
<p>You would be well served to listen to the advice being offered here. Look for at least two financial and academic safety schools FIRST…schools you can afford to pay for (might include guaranteed merit aid) and where your daughter would be a happy college student.</p>
<p>Put your “big boy pants” on and tell your daughter what the financial constraints are.</p>
<p>If you are not able to tighten your financial belt, or that of your wife and kids, you should not believe that will be considered when schools look at your financial need. The colleges really don’t care at all if you are living beyond your means. That is a family decision that you have the control to change.</p>
<p>FAFSA is pretty much required at all schools for financial aid, even PROFILE schools, as they tend to want both. What FAFSA does is “vet” you and your student for federal and sometimes state aid. With your income, you are not likely to qualify for PELL, Perkins, SEOG, but with two in college at the same time, I think there will be some need, and things like work study, and the Stafford loans would be available. Also some school might cough up some grants for either or both of the two girls, Your state schools do require FAFSA for them to get any aid from them. Also if you want to borrow from PLUS (parent loans) you need a FAFSA on file. Might as well see what you get. Some merit awards require a FAFSA filing as well.</p>
<p>As for your taxes, you had better just file an estimated return that year. You can’t wait for the K-1. That’s not going to fly. You can then file an amended return when the actual K-1 comes out. </p>
<p>When your daughters have a good fix on their test scores, you can look through the lists and see where some good possibilities are for merit money for them. Check out the local options. A financial safety is a school where there is a matrix guaranteeing merit money and your student meets it, and the local state schools and comm colleges. These are schools your Ds can afford to attend. They each can borrow up to $5500 freshman year in their own names, they should be thinking of looking for jobs to defray some costs and for pocket money. Once you know where they can go with no applications or uncertainties, someplace that you can afford with those Stafford loans, you can start looking at some other schools, maybe some state ones, also some private ones, where a merit award could bring the price down to what you can afford. Again, your student can borrow that $5500 frreshman year, and similar amounts, going up a bit each year thereafter. Again keep those ears perked up for school where kids from your Ds’ high school are getting some nice merit money, and have your student give those schools a try.</p>
<p>True, depending on how high she can raise it. Certainly would be worth a try. Oldest daughter started out at a CC in CA and is now in vet med. Helped her med school bro study for the MCATs, so it didn’t seem to hurt her!</p>
<p>Just thought it might be a possibility but with CAL and UCLA not participating in the TAG it is definitely a harder sell.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>UCLA and CAL are great schools…but there are others within the system that are great too! You just gotta be open minded.</p>
<p>katwkittens: I know a lot of people who have left CA or wish they could due to high COL. Congrats to you. Not an option for me since my license, reputation, and clientele are in CA.</p>
<p>D1 is not NMF. Had the flu on PSAT day and did not do her best. Had a nice 1st try on SAT with no prep, but lacking in math (630m/720cr/730wr). So “only” 1350 if you throw out the writing. She is taking a prep course and will try again in the fall with a goal to raise her math 50 pts.</p>
<p>Projected major is poli-sci and/or history and eventually law school. Her passions are mock trial and debate and she really wants to compete in mock trial at the collegiate level, so we’re trying to limit her target list to schools that field mock trial teams. Most of the UC’s and PAC 12 schools do. Also popular on the east coast. Not so sure about the mountain states, south, or midwest.</p>
<p>I know a young lady in CA did get a merit award at one of the CSUs with stats simialr to the OP’'s D. I think it was a Chico but it could be at some others as well. She got several packages, in the $5-10K range, hardly a huge amount, but takes the edge of paying for sleep away college. With the Stafford loans, and working summers and a little bit during the year, it would make it affordable for the OP. </p>
<p>My son went to our in state school with a small award ($3500) but that amount on the state price made it a go. He got up to $5K in merit money at some nice schools, but with sticker prices at that time of $50K, that was just a drop in the bucket, whereas the state school was affordable and the award sweetened the pot nicely. </p>
<p>Getting big merit awards is tough, and the costs these days make it so that even half off the sticker price can still be way up there in cost.</p>
<p>The internet is your friend. I googled “mock trial” with a couple of midwestern/southern colleges that would likely offer your daughter merit aid and look what I found in just a few minutes:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Rhodes</a> College | Mock Trial](<a href=“http://www.rhodes.edu/mocktrial/]Rhodes”>Mock Trial | Rhodes College)</p>
<p>Lawrence is a great LAC in Wisconsin: </p>
<p>[Lawrence</a> University Qualifies Two Teams for National Semifinals of Mock Trial Competition « Lawrence University News](<a href=“http://blogs.lawrence.edu/news/2006/02/lawrence-university-qualifies-two-teams-for-national-semifinals-of-mock-trial-competition.html]Lawrence”>Lawrence University Qualifies Two Teams for National Semifinals of Mock Trial Competition – Lawrence University News)</p>
<p>Looks like there are many schools that have them.</p>
<p>[Member</a> Schools](<a href=“http://www.collegemocktrial.org/about-amta/member-schools/]Member”>Member Schools)</p>
<p>OP, is a UC in your budget? I would think so. It might be tight, but I just think it ought to be doable. Or I hope so, anyway.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>bookmarked</p>
<p>Her passions are mock trial and debate a</p>
<p>Along with mock trial, there are schools that have forensics debate teams.</p>
<p>Rhodes College:
Our program is one of the largest per capita in the nation.
Every year, nearly half of our entering students receive four-year competitive fellowships, scholarships and awards. Scholarships are awarded based on the information in the Common Application when submitted for admission. Following is a list of our merit-based scholarships (these amounts are effective 2013-2014):</p>
<p>Bellingrath Scholarship: $37,782 per year (full tuition each year)
Morse Scholarship: $32,500 per year
Cambridge Scholarship: $27,500 per year
Presidential Scholarship: $20,000 per year
Dean’s Scholarship: $20,000 per year for students of color
Ralph C. Hon Scholarship: $19,000 per year
Diehl Scholarship: $17,000 per year </p>
<p>You might check out the story of Curmudgeon’s DDs choice of Rhodes College here on CC in about 2006. It worked out well for her in the long run!</p>
<p>Here is an old thread with lasting advice:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/31642-my-advice-cc-parents-take-leave.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/31642-my-advice-cc-parents-take-leave.html</a></p>
<p>These, too:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/51018-two-easy-fin-aid-traps-parents.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/51018-two-easy-fin-aid-traps-parents.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/543707-dollars-dreams.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/543707-dollars-dreams.html</a></p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Yes, Curmy’s D got a high ACT (35 or 36) and rec’d a very large (free ride??) scholarship to Rhodes. She’s now at Yale Med.</p>
<p>Law school admission, as has been discussed multiple times here at CC, is primarily numbers driven. The undergrad GPA and the LSAT matter much much more than anything else. Given your description of your financial responsibilities, it doesn’t look like you and your wife are going to be able to pitch in much for the cost of law school. This means that D1 should be making every effort to find a place that won’t cost much, and won’t leave her with any debt for the undergrad part, so she can take on debt as needed for the law school part. If her GPA and LSAT are good enough, there might even be some scholarship money out there for law school, which is another good argument for choosing a lower-tier institution where grade competition might be a little lower and/or where she has a better chance to become one of the favored students of the faculty in her department.</p>
<p>More fun reading for you:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/905843-top-student-3rd-tier-school-four-years-later.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/905843-top-student-3rd-tier-school-four-years-later.html</a></p>