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Can’t speak to the college communications programs in the Pittsburgh area, but there does seems to a legitimate tech/startup culture there, connected to the presence of Carnegie Mellon and Pitt. Pittsburgh might be the closest thing in PA to a California-like tech scene. Apparently it has food and art scenes as well.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/style/pittsburgh-tech-makeover.html
Pittsburgh is awesome - but the digital media major at Pitt doesn’t seem very robust. It may be sufficient for OP of course.
@victoriapham06 Pa has state schools which have high in-state tuition, but the OOS schools you listed are even more unaffordable. USC is highly competitive and you weighted GPA of 3.97 is not that high. Your teachers and GC are probably correct in suggesting that you cast a wider net. You sound as if USC will already accepted you - I think their acceptance rate is fairly low. You can apply, but have a few instate options that you can afford.
As others have said, Penn State does not give many scholarships. You can see if Temple offers anything for your stats once you get your SAT score back. They may have scaled back on some auto scholarships because they turned out to be extremely popular.
Since you have mentioned California schools a lot, do you by any chance have relatives in CA? Any way to establish residency really really soon (you would need to take a Gap year most likely or pay full price for a year).
Finances aside, with your GPA and without knowing your SAT scores, Berkeley and UCLA is a longshot (still doable) but UCSB and USCD is within range depending on the major.
What makes CA so appealing? Is it weather? Far from home? Narrow down the whys and see if there are other schools that may fit your criteria that could be more affordable.
FWIW, I don’t you are trading financial stability for happiness. PSU is a great school. If you land there, bloom where you are planted - get involved in what you love, make friends, etc… Staying in state doesn’t preclude happiness but having a ton of debt might later.
You can always move to CA for employment later.
@ProfessorPlum168 :
It’s not possible for a dependent student to establish residency in California. Until age 24 only parents’ residency “counts”.
Penn State Abington does offer merit scholarships:
“Scholarships range from $1,000 - $6,000, based upon high school GPA and SAT scores.
Scholarship consideration is given to students with a minimum 3.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) and a combined minimum SAT score of 1000 (Reading and Math). Students with high GPAs and strong SAT scores have an excellent chance of receiving scholarships.”
Hey guys! Thank you for replying. I will definitely check out the NPC in order to see what my family can afford. My scores for the SAT come in on the 11th so I will update on this issue. As for the next SAT, my goal is to get a 1450-1500. As for money, I plan on taking a shot at the Questbridge scholarship, whatever can give me the most money. I know that Penn State is a great school but I am very susceptible to stagnancy and feeling stuck, which often affects my studies. I will definitely negate my choices of UCs, considering their lack of financial aid. I will also be opening up my college choices, as you have told me, but for right now, I plan to reach for California. I don’t have any family over in the West Coast, except for an aunt and uncle who lives in Las Vegas but that will change pretty soon. I will comment the NPC results soon! Thank you again!
@momprof9904, USC’s acceptance rate this past cycle was 13%:
https://news.usc.edu/139338/usc-acceptance-rate-fall-2018-admission/
Before anything, I’ll give some basic info about my family’s income and how I am doing in school.
My mother is unemployed while my father gets 58K from working at the Post Office, but he works overtime every day so his income doubles to about 100K. With this, my family is quite middle-class and we live in Philadelphia.
I have a 3.97 weighted GPA, 3.75 unweighted and I am waiting on my scores from my SAT. My class rank (if it matters) is #18 in my graduating class. I plan on taking 3 AP classes during my senior year, I only took one in my junior year because that was the only one that was offered since I did not have the balls to take AP Calculus, considering I am bad at math.
So now onto my dilemma: I dream about USC. It’s the dream school for me and if I go there, I plan to major in Communications, specifically Digital Social Media. Not only would I love to go to school in California, but I believe in my heart that I would love and cherish my experiences there more than staying in Philadelphia and going to school here. Only problem is that my parents are under the impression that I will be going to Penn State Abington for two years for my general courses and then to Penn State Main Campus. The main reason for this plan is because of our income, we are in a weird spot where colleges will see that we can spend money on tuition but obviously to my parents, we don’t want to pay that much money.
The more unfortunate part is that USC is need-blind, so I have to work extra hard to get some kind of scholarship from USC, which seems pretty much impossible. But with Penn State, I feel almost a guarantee that I will get in with a scholarship. I have so many thoughts going on inside my head about what to do. Should I be selfish and go to USC or stay in Philadelphia with my family but sacrifice my happiness and be financially stable?
I’ve gotten a couple of responses. Other people in my family have told me to go to USC, because my parents wouldn’t want to hold me back or for me to hold myself back. My therapist told me that going to California will be risky but at least I will have the choice to come home, rather than being stuck where I am at forever and regretting taking the chance. My counselors and teachers have told me that I should try to aim lower because my stats are not that impressive and it’s not worth the debt. And most importantly, my parents believe that I don’t need to go that far to get the job that I want in the future.
I’m unsure about where to go with this and I’m just looking for some advice, because I know that there is no definite answer.
Here is my “possible colleges” list, just in case you guys think that I am a person of extremes (which I kind of am):
USC
UCLA
UC, Berkeley
USCB
USCD
uPenn
Temple University
Penn State Main Campus/Penn State Abington
Community College of Philadelphia
Thank you, I’m excited to hear what you guys have to say about this.