Going away to college... alone!

<p>I've been talking to my mom and she wants me to remain close to home (home is really Michigan but we've been living in Georgia for the last year), but I want to venture off. It is a dream of mines to go to California. UCLA is calling my name. I love how lively the city is and how carefree it seems. I am a little torn though because I know that I will not be able to visit first or anything because I am so far... in Georgia. I'm looking for work so that I can save up money so I know that I'll need to keepa prepaid card with enough money for me to leave if I reeeeeally need to, like if it becomes so unbearable, but aside from that, I think that if I prepare now that I'll be cool. I really wanna know if anyone else has been though this as well? How was it catching a plan alone? How was move-in day? What happened after you got off of the plan? </p>

<p>My kids both went far away to school. I went with both to drop them off the first year. Other than that they flew alone, transferred planes, etc. Have you run the net price calculators for colleges like UCLA, though? Out of state tuition is steep, and financial aid isn’t really there for out of state students. Georgia has some kind of scholarships for good students who stay in state, don’t they? (not from there, but I seem to remember this, I am sure someone else can comment on it). A lot of students end up going to college in their home states due to cost, then moving after graduation if they want to live someplace else.</p>

<p>I thought about the financial aspect which is why I’m heavily into filling out scholarships and writing essays, in addition to filing FAFSA. I just really want this so I’m working to make it happen. Does high SAT scores land any kind of financial rewards that you know of?</p>

<p>Okay you need to get serious. Each college has a net price calculator on their website (on the financial aid page). You need to run the net price calculator for each college you are interested in (you will need help from your parents). That will give you an idea what kind of costs you are talking about. UCLA is a public university in California, they are not going to give any FA or scholarships to out of state students. “Just wanting this” even with high SAT scores is not going to erase a couple hundred thousand dollars in tuition.</p>

<p>Schools in CA that do offer some merit aid for high SAT scores might be USC or Scripps. Others can probably list more. But even with merit aid, you can be facing a bill of $30,000 a year or more. You can only borrow $5,500 your freshman year in federal loans, and a bit more in subsequent years. So unless your parents are willing to pay or borrow the rest, these schools may still be out of reach. And not to put too fine a point on it, but give the grammatical errors in your post, I doubt you are headed for high enough SAT scores to get big scholarship money (not trying to be mean, but you do need a dose of reality).</p>

<p>What are your SATs and GPA?</p>