What makes you think ALL of the CA public universities are NOT worthy? You do know that thousands of kids from outside of your state consider many of your state public universities to be top notch.
Plus, your cc likely has articulation agreements with some of those four year publics in CA that would make both acceptance, and transfer of already taken credits more of an assured thing.
NYU is just plain unaffordable for you. You can apply and see…but don’t be surprised if the aid you need is not forthcoming from NYU.
With your financial considerations, I personally think you need to cast a broader net than the one you are casting. You need some schools on your transfer application list with probable affordability where you have a very good chance to be accepted.
So…sure…apply to those schools listed above…but please do consider other options as well.
Just as a side note, the most successful lawyer and one of the most influential people I know was a Government major at Sacramento State University. He is widely known throughout certain well-to-do circles in California. YOU define your success, not your college.
Of course, you can apply to all of those other schools, but IMO you should also apply to state schools as your solid Plan B. We are very lucky here in California—UCB and UCLA are world-class. When you have your acceptances and award offers from various colleges in hand, you can make a decision. Maybe you will get an outstanding merit offer from one of those colleges…you’ll never know for sure unless you apply. However, if you do not get an outstanding offer from one of the pricey private colleges, I would take the less expensive state option (provided you get in and can afford it), and go for it.
If you do want a solid Plan B for UC/CSU, meet with your CC counselor very soon (if you haven’t already) to discuss transfer requirements. And as far as the small class sizes go with UC/CSUs, you will find that the upper division classes tend to be much smaller, so I really don’t think that will be a problem for you.
@thumper1 I didn’t say ALL. I know that UCLA and UC Berkeley are top class, but it’s just not for me. I can’t see myself going there, if there are other options.
@Popcorn11201 what UCs/CSU’s have you visited or are familiar with? Each campus has it’s own “personality” and you might be surprised that one may actually feel like a good fit to you. Don’t get caught in a prestige trap. Explore all of your options.
USC is a terrific school, but it’s a private school with the cost of attendance around 70K. It would put you in the same financial boat as NYU. Why not UCLA - for half the price - if you want to live in LA? (I actually even prefer the area around UCLA to USC). From what I can tell from a quick Google search, USC and UCLA even have nearly the same 6 graduation rate - around 91%. In the same Google search, it shows that USC and UCLA even have about the same number of students, around 43,000. What do you think that USC would specifically provide you that UCLA cannot, @Popcorn11201 ?
Law school can only be done on a fast track by going to summer school. There is a requirement to be in school for 3 years, or 6 semesters, or 8 part time semesters, so two summers can equal one semester. It is not like undergrad where you can just take 18 credits and finish early. Most students want those summers for clerking, but that’s up to the student.
OP, you can do what you want as far as leaving California. The opinion of the masses here is that it is not worth borrowing lots of money to go to NYC or Boston. So you don’t want to go to UCLA or UCB because they are too big? go to Merced. I think you need to face YOUR situation that you are not from a wealthy family and you just don’t have the money to go to NYU or any other high tuition school without that school giving you a good deal of merit. From the school. There just aren’t outside scholarships to close the gap in your family income/savings and the tuition bill.
You will be passing up great financing at California schools.
@twoinanddone But Boston College offers full need-based aid for transfers and freshman alike. On the website, it says that they do not do a lot of merit-based aid because they already intend on covering the full need of students. And only 20 students for every entering freshman class gets merit scholarships. So if they do offer full need-based aid, which is totally unlike NYU, wouldn’t that make it a good choice school to consider transferring to. And not just Boston College but there are a lot of other schools that do offer full need-based aid for transfers, like Amherst, which I was just researching into (but is harder to get into).
Even if I do go to NYU, and I won’t transfer spring semester, I’ll transfer the following fall to save money. That would be like $140,000. I have $70,000 saved up so far, so I would have to find a way to get the other $70,000. Consider that NYU gives me $10,000 (that’s like 1/7 of the cost, which is already really low so it is possible) each year for financial aid, that would be $50,000 left. And also consider that I work while studying, either on campus or off campus, and I make $10,000 for the two years, that would be $40,000. $40,000 in loans needed. And like someone said earlier, students could only take out around 30k ( if I remember correctly?) so that would mean my parents would have to take out 10k, which I am sure that I can pay them back if I either do a gap year before law school, like a lot of law students do, and I work full time during that one year. I also plan on taking a gap year anyways because I need a break to mentally prepare myself for law school. Besides, I already saved half of my tuition as compared to if I were to go there from freshman year to senior year. I’ll figure out a way to make it work, even if I have to take out loans, because I obviously want something bad enough so I’ll figure out a way to make it work.
Sure, there are schools that meet 100% of need, but you have to be accepted to those schools. You should be very proud of your 3.9 gpa, but it’s not going to get you into Harvard or Amherst or BC if that’s all you have. Do you not think there are thousands upon thousands of students who would do that if it is as simple as getting good grades in community college and wanting to transfer? A lot of those students also have a great high school record and top scores on the tests too. Why should those schools pick you over the other thousands of 3.9 students who want to transfer? That’s the question you have to ask yourself, and that’s also the question that many of the outside scholarships will ask - why you?
You asked about outside scholarships, and I think you are now convinced that they don’t exist to pay private school tuition. Don’t now start believing you can just apply to a meets full need school at the top of the rankings. Your best bet is still going to be a California public. I’m not trying to discourage you, but encourage you to be realistic. Your parents make $40k per year, have saved $50k (an amazing feat) and you want them to borrow more money for you to go to school when you could get grants from the state of California to go to excellent public schools, just because you are tired of California? You say you’ll pay the loans, but when? After 2 years of undergrad and 3 of law school and how many of working your way up from the beginning lawyer salary?
You also can’t get $27k in student loans for 2 years. The loans are $5500/$6500/$7500/$7500 per year in school, but if you don’t take them until you are a junior, you’ll get $7500 and $7500, for $15000 total.
I suggest you apply to the one or two ‘meets full need’ schools where you think you’ll have a good chance of acceptance, and apply to the California schools and Cal Grants and other aid, and then decide which option is the best. If you get accepted to Amherst (which, by the way is in a small town, not a big city) or BC or U of Chicago, then come back and tell us all we were wrong and it’s all worked out for you. We will all be glad for you.
@twoinanddone But I never said I was going to apply for Harvard or U Chicago. I also said that Amherst would be a very reach school for me. But I do know that there are some schools that do give out full need-based aid that are fairly reasonable for me to get into, like Boston College. And I’ll do my research to find out even more.
So for the people who do actually go to NYU despite not having good finances to go there, how would they take out the huge loans? From there parents? Since you’re basically saying that you are only limited to a certain amount of loans each year. And how would co-signing work. You pay for the loans, but your parents are like a safety blanket for the people who’s loans you get from?
If I DON’T go to law school, would it be worth it to go to NYU?
Is it possible to defer a UC transfer acceptance?
Usually the loan order is student Stafford loans (the ones referred to above of $5500 to $7500 per year), then some parents will take Parent Plus loans. Plus loans are the parent’s loan, not the student’s. If qualified, they can take out up to the COA for that term (after grants, student loans, scholarships). There are some good terms for repayment but the rate is almost double the Stafford rate. Then there are private bank loans, where either the parent can take them or the student can take them with a co-signer.
No one thinks NYU is a good idea whether you go to law school or not. NYU is not going to help you get into a law school any more than UCLA or CalPoly. It is your grades and LSAT scores that will get you in.
$7,500 per junior and senior year, not $75000 for Stafford loans.
If the COA is $75k, and the student takes $7500 and there is no other funding, no grants or scholarships, the Parent Plus loan COULD be $67.5k. This would be foolish.
This is just wishful thinking. You need at least $140k for NYU, more if you have to attend for 2-1/2 years. You have $70k, so you need an additional $70k. You can only borrow $7500/year ($15k total). That means you’re short $55k. You can’t just make up a $10k/year grant from NYU or plan to pay with a $10k/year job that you don’t have yet. And asking low income parents, who’ve already saved $50k for you, to take on any debt is just wrong.
I know you’re very set on NYU, but no one can advise having your parents take out a loan of 70k+ on a 40k/year salary. Nor can they advise paying 70k a year where you could get into other schools possibly with full tuition paid for by financial aid.