<p>Hi everybody! Im looking at colleges and would greatly appreciate some help, any advice helps! So, to give everybody a better understanding of my situation, Ill give you all some background info on me. I am 17, currently starting my senior year of high school, and have started looking at colleges. I have lived in Illinois my entire life, and would live to move away, the west coast is set like stone in my mind. Ive wanted to move to Long Beach, California for the past year, and its a dream of mine I would do ANYTHING to accomplish. I have been looking at foreclosures in Long Beach, and its a bit harder to find information than youd think, but anyway, Im hoping that I can find a small 1bed 1bath house, condo, or studio apartment type deal for extremely cheap. Im really hoping to keep it to a few thousand bucks, or maybe even get a rent to own deal for a few hundred a month. And when I say its a dream of mine, I mean it would literally be like the greatest thing ever. I love to skateboard, and I love the tropical atmosphere, and the beautiful ocean, and even the palm trees. Living in Long Beach would be like living a permanent vacation. But anyways what all this has to do with college. Ive looked up information on all the public colleges in IL, and they arent bad or anything, but they have become a last resort for me at this point. Considering Im willing to do whatever I have to live in Long Beach, I would also LOVE a chance to attend school there, obviously, because a great career is the long term goal here. But music is an extreme passion in my life, it is one thing I have always been inspired by and kept by my side. I love to sing and am trying to establish myself as an artist, working on lyrics and trying to find people to do cooperative things with. I want to be famous, or at very least, be able to make a living doing the one thing I love, and I know I have enough passion to carry out my dreams, and Im pretty sure I am talented enough to back me up. But considering I am hoping to take my career path that way, I think I am considering a major in music. So I am looking for colleges with good music majors, and definitely around or inside long beach, at least within commuting distance. Class size does not matter all that much to me, nor does ranking. I just want something that I can really focus on music studies, and learn a lot from, so I can get into the industry and work my way to the top. I am also looking at colleges price wise. The bigger a price tag, the bigger a red flag. I know Ill have to pay off whichever college I go into, but it would be nice if I could spend less time worrying about bills, and more time focused on the music that is going to pay them off. All that being said, if I cant work anything out, staying in IL is my backup plan. But it is a decision I would regret for the rest of my life, considering college is a prime time in everyones life, and where a lot of people are made into what theyve been shooting for up to that point. So Im going to shoot for the moon, hoping to land for the stars. But advice, support, and information would be soo extremely helpful, so pleeease please please comment, message me, and help me out any way you can.</p>
<p>Unless your PARENTS move to Calif, it won’t matter that you buy something in Calif. </p>
<p>BTW…Long Beach property is expensive, so even a foreclosure would be expensive.</p>
<p>You need to be realistic.</p>
<p>YOU can only borrow $5500 for freshman year. Unless your parents are going to pay for college, going to school in Calif is not likely. </p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year?</p>
<p>What are your grades and test scores.</p>
<p>I’m guessing that you’re looking at CSULB? That’s a top tier CSU and hard to get into. OOS costs will be about $30k per year. How will pay for that?</p>
<p>There always UCSB nearby too, but thats just getting more expensive. You might want to post your stats so people can understand what schools you’d get admitted too.</p>
<p>Ah! Forgot about stats. Well, i took the ACT last year and got a 24. I am not a straight A student, but I never get any C’s and an A is not uncommon for me. However in past years I haven’t been focusing very hard and am starting to strive to do much better in my studies. When I go to college I will hit the books hard, and make sure I succeed academically. And as far as my ACT score goes, I was not prepared the first time around. I am retaking it again, and shooting for a 30. The class I took really helped, and i’ve solved pretty much every error i had on the first test, so I am confident my retake will be a few points higher at bare minimum. And as far as money goes, my mom is willing to support me financially as well as my grandparents. I will be getting as much money as I can possibly find in scholarships and grants, and hopefully a better ACT score will lower costs a bit. I am also willing to do anything I myself can to raise money to pay for my future, and will work hard to pay off any debts and loans i’m left with.</p>
<p>I understand you want to go to California, but not going at 18 shouldn’t be “a decision I would regret for the rest of my life, considering college is a prime time in everyone’s life, and where a lot of people are made into what they’ve been shooting for up to that point”. You can become what you are to become anywhere, and work towards your goals of California and music on the way. Good luck!</p>
<p>Any schools you recommend with amazing music programs that will help get me into the industry a little easier then? I actually got advice today that going out of state could be a good idea, scince IL is determined to hit another recession soon, and other states have money they need to spend on out of state US students. Not saying that Calli specifically is in a situation to provide for out of state students, scince they’re economy is not doing well. But if it comes down to falling back on somewhere closer, do you know of anyplace that would be advantageous? just curious</p>
<p>You really don’t sound very interested in school.</p>
<p>Why not take a program to get certified in a technical field, like ultrasound or radiology tech? Get certified nationally if possible, then move to California and get a job. In your spare time, play in a local band amd start making your connections.</p>
<p>I really don’t seem interested in school 0_o… okay, so i come onto a website designed to have helpful forums, and i ask for advice on schools, hoping someone can point toward a few good ones i could check out, maybe gimme some other helpful tips…and instead i get told i’m not interested in school?..</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the schools. But I do know that there are a couple schools that offer sound engineering, entertainment management etc. Depends on what part of music do you want to get into. But assuming you yourself want to be the artists, I would look at LAC that are really good at music such as Oberlin or Denison. But it all depends on what you can afford and how much you can borrow. Borrowing is a slippery slope. You might finish school with few job prospects and over $50k debit that you have to start paying immediately.</p>
<p>So that why people usually suggest you first look at local schools. Illonois has some fantastic schools. Surrounding you are some nice schools, I’m sure some might even give discounts in exchange type programs.</p>
<p>But at the same time, you know if you aim for a specific school but don’t have the grades community college is a great idea, for you to bump up your grades from high school, get things sorted and get into a school you wouldn’t have qualified from while in high school.</p>
<p>Not to offend you or anything. I think others comments weren’t meant to be mean. It’s just your original post, was a little on the unclear to dreamy side. You have to have a solid plan, how to pay for school, what schools can you get into, what degree you want to get, and after school what you will do with the degree, how much debt you will have, how much will have been paid off, etc.</p>
<p>I live in CA and everything here is super expensive. I live in the surrounding area of SF, our home isn’t even 1000 sq feet and its was a little less than half a million dollars. People would laugh all over the country at that idea. Gas recent after a fire at a refinery jumped from $3.89 to $4.19 in 2 days. Everything is expensive here. LA is cheaper than SF, but not by a lot. Only places in CA that are cheap would be Stockton or Modesto, but not much out there in those places. CSULB from my understand is quite selective State University wise, its where there headquarters is.</p>
<p>But if you want to go, I’d look up the collegedata and see scores that people got in with. Crunch some numbers on tuition and room and board, then go from there.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that until you turn 24, your state residency will depend upon the state residency of your parents regardless of where you live (unless you have an income that can be judged to be fully self-supporting and you can show that you get no $ from them and are not claimed on their taxes). Given that, four years of private college in CA will cost $250,000. Four years of out-of-state costs at a public college will run $200,000, and CA public schools are notoriously non-generous to out-of-state students. On the contrary, they use OOS students as cash cows in order to be able to afford the discounts that they give to in-state residents. Could you afford $200-250K?</p>