<p>I would ask this in another section but i prefer advice from people with children....</p>
<p>My husband and I are about to have our first child, we live in NYC. I am technically still a UCLA student, and have about 6 months left of school. In order for me to finish my UCLA degree i would have to go and live in San Diego (2+hour drive to UCLA) with my daughter and stay at my parents house. This is the only way as someone needs to babysit her and we are not rich considering my undergrad debt and his law school debt. </p>
<p>Now, i have the option of applying and transferring to UCSD which would be about 10 min from my house. If i transfer to UCSD i would double major.</p>
<p>Currently because the goal is to just complete UCLA as quickly as possible i am not doing my intended education plan, i am basically majoring in something of interest but not something that yeilds a career (international development studies)- and here in NYC I have been accepted to the local uni to complete a second bachelor for Actuarial Science- which is what i plan on doing for work.</p>
<p>So , do i give up UCLA and go to UCSD with a double major. Or should i finish UCLA and go to Baruch for a Second Bachelor?</p>
<p>I question if the Degree from UCLA in International Development will be worth the 2+ hour one way drive daily and difficult situation with having a baby and all.</p>
<p>We are talking about a school people heard of and a school no one knows of. Plus with only 8 classes left, it is hard for me to give up the better school.</p>
<p>Also, in the long run we do plan on moving to california, i just feel i would get more with a UC on my resume than Baruch.</p>
<p>Commuting 2+ hours each way to UCLA sounds unreasonable when you have an infant. If you add together the hours it will take you to commute and go to class, you’re already at around 40 hours/week, and that’s before you include hours to study each day. </p>
<p>What’s the downside to transferring to UCSD?</p>
<p>UCSD is a whole lot better than commuting, and it will likely be much more than 2 hours unless you plan to drive at extreme hours. UCSD has a pretty strong IR program as well.</p>
<p>However: 1) can you even transfer into SD in a timely manner, i.e., UC transfer rules can be bureacratic? 2) would the major at UCSD accept all your LA classes so you could still graduate in only two quarters?</p>
<p>Not each day, at most i would go 3 times a week, most likely 2. I have the type of courses that usually are scheduled only two times a week. </p>
<p>Basically i would be gone all day 2 times a week, and 1 additional day only if there is a discussion section that falls on a random day. The courses i have left usually occurr just 2x a week.</p>
<p>Downside to UCSD is that i could have gone there to begin with and i didnt. We are not rich, it was a big deal for me to go to UCLA, i worked my arse off .. no one paid for my rent or anything, i did it all on my own and there is a sort of attachment to me graduating form UCLA.</p>
<p>UCSD - i would have to change majors, i would NOT graduate in two quarters. I would enter UCSD with 131 quarter units and i would double major probably going there for a solid year or more… so there is also the issue of how comfortable i am separating baby and daddy for the time being… I mean, we will do what we need to do and there are benefits to this situation b/c he can work more and it is cheaper to have my mom babysit and etc… it would be a sacrifice we can make for our futures.</p>
<p>Commuting to UCLA would be insane, especially with a newborn in the equation. The drive alone would be a nightmare, and tack onto that the guilt and worry that would go along with leaving a baby at home. Go to UCSD. It may not be as well-known or prestigious as UCLA, but you have more important things to consider these days. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>Do you really need to take all 8 courses at UCLA? Can’t you take a semester “abroad” in NYC? You really ought to be able to complete your UCLA degree taking some courses elsewhere. Like, at Baruch. (I think.)</p>
<p>And, do you really need to do a second BA in Actuarial Science? Isn’t there a one-year master’s program you could do.</p>
<p>Finally, consider taking the baby with you. If the baby is still little (i.e., not crawling around), you might be surprised at how much you can accomplish. My wife often says that she wishes she had had a child during her last year of law school rather than waiting until afterward.</p>
<p>Just a thought – once you have one bachelor’s degree, you are no longer eligible for federal funds (like pell and stafford) if I understand correctly. I also believe that financial aid is extremely limited for students who already have one bachelor’s degree – so you might keep that in mind if money if an issue.</p>
<p>Yes my husband would be in NYC- he goes to law school here and he works here. … no one can support us, we live on his income. </p>
<p>JHS- UCLA has this rule “of the last 45 units 35 must be taken at UCLA”- Semester in NYC would not really work b/c the courses that are offered with their study abroad program for a summer in NY are not the ones i need to graduate. Because i have so few courses left they are rather specific. </p>
<p>I would be taking the baby with me, to san diego, I can not afford to live in Los Angeles with the baby without my parent babysitting the baby while i am in class. </p>
<p>Baruch is really cheap for in sate tuition which i would get eventually (it is 4000 a year for full time students)</p>
<p>We would plan on doing this when the baby is almost 1- i am taking 1 year off and she is due this July. . .</p>
<p>^We would plan on doing this when the baby is almost 1- i am taking 1 year off and she is due this July. . .</p>
<p>Ah! That will be different! My H and I were in a similar situation. I would not be able to tolerate that commute, and single patrenting will be hard enough. I still think the whole “better school” thing will seem trite. No advice but good luck!</p>
<p>I am so confused. I know it might seem like i am young and knocked up or something, but really it wasnt the situation. It was very difficult to find out at 22 that you will probably not ever have children, so prioraties changed at that time, now i am almost 24 and things are completely different and i am trying to sort of make the best of the education aspect. It is like two very extreme situations for me… in one respect at the start of fall 07 when i left UCLA i didnt care at all if i ever returned, but now that i dealt with what in my eyes was a huge life problem (hopefully if all goes well in this past month) … i am now trying to reconsider the school situation and UCLA because originally it was also very important to me.</p>
<p>I assume that your H is attending night law school? How far along is he and will he be by next year? </p>
<p>I don’t know these facts and without them these are just ideas. </p>
<p>One possible option if the courses are offered during the summer is for you to go to summer school and have your H get a job as a summer associate in LA. If you have a half-decent apartment in NYC, he should be able to find a sublessee for it among his fellow law students. I suspect if he explained the circumstances to his employer–assuming night law school–it might be willing to give him a leave of absence. This would at least help get one quarter done.</p>
<p>Second possible option: Is there any possibility that your H could be a visiting student at UCLA Law for a semester or year? Even if you BOTH had to commute from your family’s home, you’d be together. You might even qualify for married student housing --and again, you might be able to sublease your apartment in NY. </p>
<p>Could you do any of the hours you must do at UCLA by independent study? A sympathetic prof might agree to make some sort of on-line or via mail course available to you. </p>
<p>Check to see if there’s a day care center at UCLA. If there is, at least take your baby with you on the days you have class. That way, you’ll see more of him/her and get to know some other student parents. You’ll also be able to do some studying in the library or other chores on campus. </p>
<p>If your H were also a student during that time, you might be able to stagger your class hours so one or the other of you was taking care of the baby most of the time and only needed day care for a limited number of hours.</p>
<p>He starts his 3rd year this fall, by the time we are thinking of me going to california he would be done with his third year and have 1 semester left. He is to graduate Dec 2009 from law school.</p>
<p>Problem with him going with me to CA is his job . He is an RN and his liscence is good only in NYC because he is foreign educated… california will not give him an RN liscence without taking another course in psychiatrics …I have no idea of where he can get another job that pays ~80k for working less than 30hours/week- his employment is very flexible, he just has to see x amount of clients monthly, usually he only works 2 weeks out of the month for like 8 hours a day b/c that is all it takes to get his job done. </p>
<p>Going to California without employment of comparable value would not be possible … we have bills that are much larger than our counterparts b/c we have no parental assistance- technically at some point in time both of us supported our parents… we are 1st generation here so sort of different from the usual financial situations. Based on our income i know we are not exactly poor, but our debt ratio negates that. </p>
<p>No online courses in UCLA … unfortuantley.. Honestly UCLA doesnt cater to adult students at all. When i went there there was no night classes even, it was sooo hard to work and make it to class.</p>
<p>What I was suggesting was that a small infant can go to class with you; you wouldn’t really need a regular babysitter. One can do all sorts of things with a really little baby. With a 12-month-old, not so much.</p>
<p>The other thing to check out would be drop-in child care, which UCLA (or UCSD, or Baruch) may well have at reasonable rates. </p>
<p>Another option: they have law schools and legal jobs in Los Angeles, too. With law schools, it is usually pretty easy to take your last year somewhere else – you get a degree from your original school, it’s not a transfer.</p>
<p>EDIT: Written without having read the post immediately above. Where is he in law school? Could he take the course he needs for CA certification while he’s in law school?</p>