<p>In the college financial aid process,
I was given 2 choices.</p>
<li>Go to UC-San Diego (a place I would have liked b.c of interest in biotechnology, ) but as an out of state student would have paid 39,000 in tution for first year.</li>
</ol>
<p>or </p>
<li>Go to a private school in east coast, without any loans b.c of generous financial aid package.</li>
</ol>
<p>Could I have talked to UC-SD’s financial aid office, and shown them the generous financial aid package of private school and asked them to MATCH it?? Would they ahve done that???</p>
<p>So with request, good recommendation letters saying I'm capable, and a little bit of luck, they could have wavied my OUT OF State tution to in-state???</p>
<p>It is still highly unlikely that you are going to get your out of state tuition waived to instate. Keep in mind the purpose of the UC's is to provide an affordable education for their instate, tax paying residents, not out of state students.</p>
<p>Even if they waive it down to instate tution, you will still have to pay the full board of room/board which means your cost of attendance is going to be more than 25K where the most of your FA is going to be in the form of loans. </p>
<p>Based on your postings, you are headed for Columbia (SEAS) in the fall. You state that they have given you a good need based package, take it, do well and forget about trying to go in debt especially since you are looking to go to med school.</p>
<p>I have never heard of anyone successfully negotiating a merit-based aid package with a UC. (Waiving out-of-state tuition would have to be merit-based - it would not be done based on need alone). That doesn't mean it can't be done... but I honestly don't see how it would happen at any of the more competitive campuses. The UC's have no shortage of well-qualified students, and unless you had particular skills & abilities and were aiming for an under-enrolled major, or perhaps were a recruitable athlete with amazing talents... there just is no particular reason why the UC's would want to favor you over the thousands of other incoming students. </p>
<p>UC's aren't like private colleges. They don't care about rankings and they have so many students coming in that they don't generally have to worry about attracting specific students to fill various niches. Now perhaps if you had been aiming for an under-enrolled campus like UC Merced, there would be some incentive for the college to offer you a substantial break in tuition.</p>