<p>The pre-vet classes are nearly the same as the pre-med req’ts, so your classmates would be a bunch of high stats kids all gunning for the limited number of A’s. With your stats, it’s not likely that you’d emerge with the needed A’s to get into vet school.</p>
<p>If your goal is vet school, then you’re going about this wrong. You’re sabotaging yourself by starting in a program that you’re not yet prepared to begin (finances aside).</p>
<p>Do you understand how few (non athlete) kids at Davis have your ACT score?</p>
<p>Fostergirl: my DD attends Davis and we are full pay because the UC’s just don’t have the money to fund or afford in-state students. We can’t afford her college costs either, but we managed to scrimp and save some 529 monies for her education.</p>
<p>Now I say the following with the utmost sincerity and concern: your ACT score is just not competitive enough for Davis-the average scores are above 30. Your ACT of 19 is just considered too weak to compete in these uber competitive classes. </p>
<p>Additionally, you can’t afford this school and you really can’t work and maintain a decent gpa. Remember that in applying for vet school, your GPA has to be maintained at a high level. The UC’s accept OOS students because these students pay “full freight”.</p>
<p>Example: If you are taking the STEM coursework for pre-vets, your freshman schedule would be comprised of Calculus, Physics, Chemistry and Biology with the corresponding labs; plus, since these are weeder courses and can have 200-500 students (with 30+ ACT scores) who know “how” to study, you would have to struggle just to keep up.</p>
<p>The reason you need to take those “unnecessary” classes is that Davis assumes you’ve had those AP classes as precursors to their courses. My dd thought the DAVIS courses were difficult and fortunately for her, she was able to make the dean’s list through daily tutoring, attending office hours and her self-discipline in her study habits. Her roommates, unfortunately, didn’t have the necessary background in those AP courses and ended up with weak GPA’s.</p>
<p>I’m going to give you the truth. You NEED to go back to school and take those unnecessary classes to better prepare you for college and to help with raising your test scores. Your 17 or 19 ACT score (I don’t know which one it is) is absolutely crappy. In fact, it’s below the national average, which is around a 21. Your not ready for college, and your test scores and academics show that. You will more than likely struggle in college if you don’t improve your academics. And guess what, it’s easier for you to improve now rather than to do poorly in college and try to figure out someway to fix it. You have the time to fix it now so why waste the opportunity. </p>
<p>Even if you magically got into UCD, you CAN’T AFFORD IT. You want to go to vet school. Let me give you this tip. You WANT to come out of undergrad with the LEAST amount of debt as possible. Your really thinking of taking out loans around $35,000 each year is going to help? Really? Like really? You can’t possibly be serious. Have you even thought how much debt you would be in after four years? Do you know how much that would hinder you? Do you know the amount of INTEREST you would be paying on those loans? Lets put it into perspective: the average amount of debt for a college graduate in the US is $27,000. You NEED to go to a school that is affordable. Think about what your getting yourself into. </p>
<p>None of the other posters are trying to be mean to you. They are giving you the cold hard truth. I completely agree with all of them 100%.</p>
<p>Fostergirl, I am not going to address your preparedness for college. You have graduated from high school, applied to colleges and you even have one in hand here with a financial aid package. You apparently thought that some money was going to come through for you that did not. This happens a lot to prospective and current students. When that happens you have to come up with alternative plans.</p>
<p>I’ve said this a lot–my son has a vibrant wonderful friend who was expecting to go to a particular college to which she was accepted EA and it was her choice since fall of Senior year. It was on her Facebook page, on the graduation program at her high school and she told everyone she was going there. But when it came time to pay the bill, her parents could not come up with the money. THey were denied all loans, and that was it. She could not go there. She ended up working first semester full time, still living at home and then enrolled at a local school for the second term. She’s now going to be entering her third year and has finally managed to somehow get housing there or near there, and as intrepid as she is, I think she will graduate in 4 years, despite losing that first term due to her twist in events. These things happen often.</p>
<p>The state of California has aid for their own students that you cannot get being OOS. Many OOS schools, and CA is doing this aggressively, look to OOSers to GET more money than they can charge for in staters. THey are highly unlikely to GIVE out the money. You can come if you can come up with the funds is what they are saying’ </p>
<p>You are absolutely right when you say you can’t afford the tuition here. From what you have laid out, you cannot, and you now need to focus on affordable options. I’m sorry it went as far and as long as it did with UC. Had you been working with some people who were upfront and knowledgeable, you would have known from the get go, that obtaining enough money from that school to make it affordable for you was a very small chance and you should have had a back up plan, a sure thing, an affordable thing on standby.</p>
<p>It sounds like your only options are postponing starting school and look for a job until then to pay for it, or go to a cheaper school, and since its too late to apply to most schools either way you are probably going to experience a delay.</p>
<p>Thanks all but I have figured out what I am going to do. I am going to talk with admissions about deferring enrollment for 1 year and still move to CA this year, hopefully then I will qualify for in-state tuition. If admissions says this is not the case I will apply to schools spring semester in my state.</p>
<p>I understand my test scores are way below average and very crappy.</p>
<p>However I was an A student in high school, both homeschool and public. I struggle with Math, I am above Average in English, writing and reading. Math and Science are my weak points. I realize I am going into a course that is mainly math and sciences for this reason while I am taking a gap year I will take non-credit courses in math and science and re-take my ACT.</p>
<p>And frankly yes this did get off topic, I posted about needing help with ideas for funding for college, not for people to tell me my stats suck, my scores suck, I’m being unreasonable, I was homeschooled etc etc.</p>
<p>Fostergirl, do find out exactly what you need to do in terms of getting in state tuition. It often is not the same thing as getting instate residency, and each school has its own rules about that. You seem to have some good back up plans. Now that you know more about how this works, you can work within the system better to give yourself the best possible options.</p>
<p>As for not being able to afford OOS CA, I did mean it that most of us cannot. I can’t for my kids either. </p>
<p>Maybe OOS CC would be affordable? Unfortunately you might not get any aid other than Federal Loans, but you’d at least get a start on your education while waiting for in-state to kick in. I’m also not sure how much OOS CC rates are, so I’m not sure if it would be any better (other than not having to pay for a dorm).</p>
<p>Before moving West, make sure you understand the residency rules totally. Most states base your residency on your parent until you are 24 years old. </p>
<p>The adult student (at least 18 years of age) and parent must have been physically present in the state for 366 days prior to the first day of instruction (the UC Residence Determination Date) of the term for which he/she wishes to be considered a resident;</p>
<p>fostergirl, even though you might not be going to UC-Davis, congratulations anyway. It seems everyone is out to get you on this thread, but as a fellow teenager, I’d like to acknowledge how hard it is to make decisions with a million adults screaming what they would do if they were you. Good luck on the rest of your endeavors, and I hope you make a great vet :)</p>
<p>People can be harsh on CC, but fostergirl, many who posted were trying to give you a reality check and I would say that much of the advice is dead on the money. Those who work in college admissions would tell you the same. Establishing residency in California for purposes of tuition as an out of state student is very, very difficult. </p>
<p>Attending a CC whether in your home state or California for a while would save you a tremendous amount of money while building up your academic transcript. Going to vet school is expensive, so saving on the undergrad side is critical for your future. Have you run the numbers of how much your monthly loan payment might be on $100,000…before vet school? </p>
<p>Your goal will be mostly A’s in college before applying to vet school. UC Davis has weeder classes with 600-700 kids in them. Congratulations on your acceptance. I know it is hard to imagine taking time off, but the absolute best thing you could consider would be taking some of the super difficult science and math and lab classes - ie, Bio, Chem, Physics and Calc at a school with smaller classes, that is cheaper and where those units will directly transfer to the schools on your list. It is not taking a step back, but being smart about your time and money. If you go to a CC community college, especially near Davis, it will be costly but save you money while building up your transferable units. There is even a website in Calif that helps you figure out which classes work for CA colleges [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org)</p>
<p>I am confused. How did the OP get into Davis with a 17/19 on her ACT in the first place?</p>
<p>The UCs weight GPA heavily…much more heavily than test scores to give a better opportunity to URMs and other students from less-than-adequate K-12 schools. Plus, as an OOS student, they expected her to be a money source.</p>
<p>fostergirl, it is extremely, extremely difficult to become a California resident for tuition purposes unless your parent(s) live there. Also the one year determination date for UCs is typically May 1st prior to fall semester. So in order to become a resident by Fall 2014, you would’ve had to physically reside in California starting in April 2013. This plan will not work.</p>
<p>NC has excellent public schools. You are very fortunate to live in a state with many good publics to choose from at reasonable cost. Lots of kids from other states would like to gain residency in your state! If your plan is to go to vet school, maybe it would be best to defer your desire to go far from home for that stage of your journey.</p>
<p>If you move to CA and become self supporting, you will need to get a decent paying job. That income will be included on your FAFSA form. The cost of supporting yourself completely in CA will be high…and your income will need to,show,that you have earned enough to do this. With THAT much student income, you may find you don’t qualify for need based aid at all. You could end up being a full pay student and even if you happened to get instate status, you would be footing the bill yourself.</p>
<p>My suggestion, do a post grad year high school year someplace…retake the ACT and maybe try the SAT. </p>
<p>Then apply to one of the outstanding public universities in YOUR home state of NC. CA will still be there when it is time for you to head to grad school.</p>
<p>Foster girl: please don’t take the advice posted here as criticisms; you’re mistaking our experiences, for criticism. NOT TRUE! I realize that this advice is an “age thing” as my daughter would view these posts as “criticisms” as well, toward future goals. So I get that.
If you have the drive, then by all means try to do what you’ve set your mind to do, but go in with eyes wide open. </p>
<p>It will cost you A LOT to go to Davis. (I know from experience because I’ve taken 2 part time jobs to pay for my daughter’s education at Davis.) I can’t imagine a student trying to raise this money on her own.</p>
<p>Additionally, you’re smart in admitting that you have weaknesses in math and science; this means you need help to keep a high GPA to get into Vet School. Get free tutors at the local CC’s to get your scores up. If you start taking courses at a CC, however, you will be considered as a “transfer” student, depending on the number of courses taken, which will reduce your financial aid as a freshman student.</p>
<p>Re moving to California; rents are extremely high out here. Everyone wants to live in California; they move here, and realize that their salaries here don’t begin to cover their housing costs. Entry level jobs here are hard to find as well.</p>
In the interest of accuracy, an ACT score of 30 is the 75th percentile at UC Davis, which is well above the UC Davis average. </p>
<p>However, that doesn’t change the fact that 19 is seriously noncompetitive; it’s far below the 25th percentile. Fostergirl,you should be aware that UC Davis is going to be very challenging.</p>