Experiences of OOS students at UC (Social life, Fin Aid, other?)

College Search & Selection
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Does anyone have experience being an OOS student at a UC school?

I keep reading that unless you are super wealthy, you shouldn’t even consider applying as an OOS. So does that mean that all OOS students at UC’s are super wealthy? Has anyone been able to receive reasonable merit aid as an OOS?

And socially does it feel weird being one of very few OOS students?

Are there other things we should take into consideration applying as an OOS to the UC’s?

My son is really interested in the UC schools (wants to apply as a humanities major) but we are trying to decide if it’s worth it to even try as OOS.

Thank you for any thoughts or suggestions you may have!

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My daughter attended 2 UC’s (UG and Grad) as a resident student and made lots of friends with non-residents. It’s not the first thing that is asked.

How will students know that your son is from OOS unless he tells them or wears a shirt that says, “I’m not from California”. It’s not an issue. There are hundreds of students from everywhere on the planet at the UC’s. (Non-resident students bring in the cash for the State.)

Also, people don’t realize that California kids come from a variety of locales: Large agricultural farms up and down the state. Lots of coastal and wooded areas. Desert communities and cities. (Our daughter’s school was over 500+ miles from our home). The majority of the State is not “beach party” central-SoCal is really small in comparison to the rest of the state.

The students blend in and no one really cares where anyone is from unless they want to plan a visit out of state. (Remember, that this is California and, generally, very welcoming and social.)

Please be aware that most of these schools are HUGE universities. The freshman and sophomore classes are large. At some universities, there are weeder-type classes. Some freshman math classes have several hundred students.

Merit dollars are few and minimal because, remember, that the State of California taxpayers pay the bills. Assume $2K-$5k for any scholarships per year. That barely covers the health insurance fees. Are you willing to spend over a quarter of a million dollars for a public school education in California?

Most California residents receive some form of financial aid from Cal Grants, blue/gold scholarships, university grants. As a non-resident, your son will not qualify for that funding.

If you think that only wealthy students attend the UC’s, you are mistaken. Every financial level is there.

No, absolutely not and it’s important to note that too many parents listen to their children and put their homes up as collateral, to get loans, to pay for the UC’s. That’s financially risky and irresponsible. Parents have a budget. Anything over that leads to ridiculous loan repayments.

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Yes, merit scholarships exist, but large (or potentially large ones where the award amount is based on financial need) ones are quite difficult to get.

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@Evie800 all UC students are not super wealthy….BUT OOS UC students have to have some money as they will be expected to pay the full cost of attendance as OOS students which approaches $65,000 a year at some of the UCs.

Do you have that much money for college per year…that’s about a quarter of a million dollars for an undergrad degree.

There are some merit awards, but they are not huge and go to very very very tippy top students only as OOS students.

I think you need to think about the finances of this, but really, only your family can make the decision on whether this is worth the money.

What is your home state? Are you also looking at public universities in your home state?

I see his GPA on another thread…what is his SAT or ACT score? Folks might be able to suggest colleges based on these data points.

Keep in mind that the UCs won’t be using ACT or SAT scores at all…so these won’t factor into admissions at the UCs. But they could at many other colleges.

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not a UC student (yet but I hope to be) but I am instate. UCs are not cheap for out of state students because of very little merit aid for OOS students. it definitely does not mean all UCs are for rich people.

backing up what @aunt_bea is saying, the state of California is huge. ucb is around a 4-5 hour drive to UCLA, and that’s not even the biggest difference. the northernmost UC, Davis, is a 7.5 hr drive to the southernmost (UCSD). it’s safe to say that these schools are wildly different, and so are the people going to these schools. someone going from LA to UCSC for example, is practically out of state geographically. the point I’m trying to make is that there are a lot of people from many different backgrounds, and OOS people won’t have a problem fitting in since UCs are typically really large. there will be a niche that your son can fit into.

that being said, UCs are very expensive for OOS because as @aunt_bea said, there are a lot of financial aid $ that your son isn’t eligible for but is available for in state people.

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UC Merced does have WUE tuition (1.5 times in-state tuition) for non-resident students from one of the WUE states.

https://admissions.ucmerced.edu/out-of-state/wue

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Our experience has been that OOS families are wealthy but not super-wealthy, after all the UCs are still cheaper than full pay at a top private. There are a lot of poor instate students and a few very rich ones (in our experience wealthier than the typical OOS families). It wouldn’t be at all uncommon for a rich Silicon Valley or Hollywood family to send their kid to UCB or UCLA, but it would be unusual for a rich New York family.

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Merit aid is highly competitive at the UC’s and below are the Regent scholarship amounts by campus that are available. In general, the UC’s offer good need-based aid for in-state CA residents.

UC Regents Scholarships and the amounts/year:
Amount: Awards vary by campus and are not transferable if you transfer to another UC campus.

  • UC Berkley $2,500
  • UC Davis $7,500
  • UC Irvine $5,000
  • UCLA $2,000
  • UC Merced $7,000
  • UC Riverside $10,000
  • UC San Diego $2,000
  • UC Santa Barbara $5,000
  • UC Santa Cruz $5,000

UC Davis does offer a specific merit scholarship for OOS students at around $13K/year (Provost) but you are still looking at around $52K/year to attend even with the scholarship and again it is highly competitive for usually the top 1-2% of applicants.

My older son attended UC Davis and had a few International and OOS roommates. Some were from well to do families and some where not but had saved a large amount for their kids college expenses.

The UC campuses are diverse so being OOS would not be an issue.

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@Gumbymom Thank you for listing these out in detail. So these merit scholarships are available to OOS students as well?

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Thank you all for your thoughts and input on this. We are from a small town in Wyoming and I guess I had not realized how large and varied (in population and landscape) California is. We are a low-middle class family with what I thought was a lot of college savings but would still have to take out loans if we didn’t get much aid as OOS in California. My son would rather not go to college at all than stay in state and go to U of WY. But I’m sure we can find some other options besides the UCs.

He loves California for its diversity. I think he hates being the 1% asian at his 90% white, 9% latino HS. He wants a big city, big college with a lot of diversity. He’s basically been the only asian in his class since kindergarten. From the common data sets we looked at, the UCs seemed to have the highest percentage of asians so he became enamored with the idea. But I’m guessing that anywhere outside our small town (pop. 8000) will have more asians. Lol!

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@Evie800 what is your family annual budget for college without taking loans. I’m betting some folks here can give you some good ideas where your son might consider applying.

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Have him look at the schools under the WUE (Western Undergrad Exchange) as mentioned by @ucbalumnus in regards to UC Merced.

Plenty of Cal state options in the program along with UC Merced. You can sort by state and degree/major programs.

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If he’s set on California, and you’re low middle income, he should apply to the private schools in California. Those schools have a lot more money.

In SoCal, that would be at schools like:

USC (LA)
Loyola Marymount (LA)
Pepperdine (LA)
Chapman (Orange Co.)
USD (San Diego)
Pt. Loma Nazarene (San Diego)
The Claremont Consortium (outer LA County)

In NorCal that would be schools like:
Stanford (Palo Alto)
Santa Clara (Bay Area)
University of San Francisco (SF)

Many of the privates have a religious requirement and are small, but they offer merit monies that are more significant than the public universities.

The Cal States have great and huge schools that are less expensive like Long Beach and San Jose, San Diego.

Loans might work for year one and two but at some point, you would not qualify for further funds and then where would you be?

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We have enough in S22’s college fund for about $13,500 a year. We did the test FAFSA and it said our EFC was a little less than $1400.

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@aunt_bea Thank you very much for this list. So fun to have some colleges to look into! Though I don’t think S22 has the grades for Stanford or USC.

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@Gumbymom Thank you! I’ve never heard of this program before. This is pretty amazing. S22 met finally with the HS counselor the week before school got out but she mostly talked to him about what scholarships were available at U of WY and how to use their online college search program to start his searches over the summer.

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Your son has an advantage in being from Wyoming. It’s called geographic diversity. He could put in an app to USC. You never know. USC has MONEY. All he has to do is apply because you never know what the results will be.

With WUE there are some advantages and disadvantages. If he’s set on a UC, I understand that. Merced, however, is in the middle of farmland, and it’s a small surrounding community. It might be similar to WY. He seems to want experiences in large cities and WUE, in California, may not be exactly what he is seeking because it tends to be the schools that have room.
Be sure to ask here on CC, about the schools he is considering. It’s good to be prepared and ready for what the schools actually present.

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Add $5,500 federal direct loan he can take, and it becomes $19,000 per year. Add another $3,000 of work earnings part time during the school year and/or summer jobs, and it becomes $22,000 per year. That is still a very limiting cost constraint for a non-commuter student.

For example, University of Hawaii (which meets other preferences such as being in a decent size metro area and having more than 1% Asian) at WUE rates is $35,572.

Regents’ scholarships at UCB historically offered a need-based award (including to out-of-state students) that would be close to a full ride at your EFC. However, these scholarships would be very high reach, and it is not clear whether this award amount is still in effect (there is only vague mention of a need-based award on the web site, probably because they do not want to overpromise if their budget is insufficient).

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im back again… echoing what the others have said above, good options that will definitely easier on the wallet are religious schools or wealthy privates. one option i haven’t seen is Occidential College in LA. i’ve heard it’s great for polysci and international relations (they have a UN internship program and Obama went there). idk what type of humanities your son plans to major in. it’s not full need met i think but it is close from what i’ve heard. it may be a high match for him?

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What about the Pell scholarships? Do you have to have a certain GPA to get those? I heard you don’t have to pay those back.