<p>I got into a lot of great California 4-year universities and was super excited to attend and go off and start brand new. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned. I had to give up going to a 4-year straight out of high school, because my mom could not afford and I was given close to nothing in Finnanacial Aid because they included my moms child support from her two other children (which quite frankly doesn't make sense because none of that money goes to me). In the Fall of 2013, I will be attending Junior College. The problem is that I really want to attend either Foothill College (Los altos, CA) or City College of San Francisco because they offer way more opportunities for me than my local community college. My local JC is considered a joke, and many question why it's still receives funding. Also both Foothill and CCSF are the only JCs that offer Transfer Alliance Programs for both UC Berkeley and UCLA.</p>
<p>So this is great right? I have It all worked out. I will go to a JC with great opportunities. Wrong? The rent is ridiculous in the Bay Area I've searched in numerous locations including run down places like Oakland and Hayward. My commute if I stayed living at no e would be an hour and a half, and just way too much in gas. I will be working a part time job while trying to be a full time student and I still can't afford rent, gass, and food. </p>
<p>So basically I'm stuck in this rutt where nothing is affordable and I'm getting screwed by Finnancial Aid. </p>
<p>Is there any advice, stories, programs you can tell me? I'm desperate. I want to attend school and make something of my life but the odds are just slamming against me. </p>
<p>If you read my story...thank you. I'm on my own I'm this situation and I would love any support even if it is for here.</p>
<p>Oakland and Hayward? Are you normally from the Bay Area that you’re looking in such places to commute from? They would MAYBE work for something in SF if you found a place near a BART station. It would not work to commute to Foothill. Both locations are not exactly cheap and are quite far from both JCs. This on top of the fact you’d be at the heart of some of the worst Bay Area traffic.</p>
<p>Remember that TAP is not a guarantee so breaking your back trying to go to a JC that has it could yield nothing. Not worth the headache when you have a JC in commuting distance.</p>
<p>Go to your local JC. Many local JCs are at times considered jokes to those who live near them. Do well. Be involved in the school. TAG to a school you’re sure you can love attending and hope for the school you want, but have no guarantee.</p>
<p>Also you should know that CCSF is currently fighting to keep their accreditation. Not exactly a school you should be bending over backwards to try and attend while its fate is still uncertain.</p>
<p>I transferred to a UC myself. I waited until I turned 24 so I’d be considered an independent student because of family financial reasons. I commuted long distances to school, I carried full loads while working to pay for school and transport, I even moved in with another family member to attend De Anza (Foothill’s sister school) right before transfer because of personal reasons. Looking back, although there’s a lot I like that happened (such as one of my favorite jobs I held at De Anza), I wish I had not chosen to commute to a JC that was a long commute away when I had a JC in spitting distance from my home. Being honest, I looked down on that local JC because it was so close. I tried to justify that there were better programs at the further JC, but those were just smoke for my real reason I tolerated a long commute. I wised up by the time I moved to the South Bay to go to De Anza.</p>
<p>I graduated with a double major bachelors. I have minimal debt that I currently have in deferment as I was able to take courses online at a JC due to still qualifying for BOG thus making me still a part-time student while I work. I still live at home, yes, but it works for my mom and me. I remember feeling lost myself when I realized at 16 I had no money available to me for college (shortly after my brother had been put through 4.5 years at a CSU and was debt free upon graduation with everything have been fully paid by my parents). I did not take a normal path. I made the opportunities available to me work for me. My point is I can sympathize with your frustration. My only benefit that I had over you is I learned before I applied so I had time to come to terms with the knowledge.</p>
<p>TL;DR:
Go to your local JC or one in reasonable commuting distance from home if you really can’t stand your local option. Don’t try to move to the Bay for JC (especially not for CCSF while its fate remains uncertain). It’s too expensive.</p>
<p>Do well at one year of whichever college is affordable now. Then put tons of energy into exploring your options for transfers. Transfers are extremely common - some colleges wouldn’t survive without them. Small no-name colleges can have a more supportive environment and much smaller class sizes than prestigious universities, which is particularly valuable your freshman year.</p>
<p>When the money is tight, I often tell kids/families to explore their local college options By that, I don’t mean just mean community college. Living at home is a $5-15K benefit, depending on the rents in your area, accessibility and cost of transportation, and how much subsidy your family is willing to give. When you go look for a place to live, that goes right up in smoke. The aid that is available is not designed to take care of your living expenses, just for tuition, fees and costs directly attributable to going to college.</p>
<p>So your choices are the colleges near to where you live. Your job is to get the most out of them that you can so that transfer is as smooth as possible. You don’t want to borrow to go to them if at all avoidable and you should actuallly borrow what you can from Staffords and stick them in an account to use when you transfer to a 4 year school. </p>
<p>One big problem when you have no money and go to a community college is that when you are ready to transfer to a 4 year school, if there isn’t one within commutable distance from you, the cost of going to one is going to be way up there, and you are not likely to be getting any more money to go there than you were when you were initially looking. The good news is that you and your family have not sunk the money you would have had you gone away to school those first 2 years, but unless you put the savings away somewhere, you can be in the same plight two years later with no money to pay for college. </p>
<p>At that point, if you have a direction that seems to be working well, with two good years of college on your record, the risks of borrowing more–which will entail a parent signing with you are not as bad, and it 'll be for 2 years, not for 4. But you can lessen the impact by borrowing full Stafford each of your two years leaving the money in an account just for that so you don’t have to include it on the FAFSA, and using the money to help pay for your years when you transfer out. </p>
<p>I wish it were easier for those whose families can’t or won’t pay, but that is just the way it is.</p>
<p>*My local JC is considered a joke, and many question why it’s still receives funding. </p>
<p>Also both Foothill and CCSF are the only JCs that offer Transfer Alliance Programs for both UC Berkeley and UCLA.*</p>
<p>Foothill and CCSF are not the only JCs that offer TAP. Other JCs offer TAP in Calif. Where did you get that idea?</p>
<p>Also, your goal can’t just be going to UCLA or Cal because you don’t know if you’ll be able to afford to go there either. Each school costs about $32k per year. You said that you won’t get the aid you need, so those schools will be too expensive for you. </p>
<p>What CSUs and UCs are within a commuting distance from your mom’s home? </p>
<p>The idea of going to a JC (CC) is that a student is going to commute from home to save money. Otherwise, a student may as well go to a CSU.</p>
<p>The cost of “going away” to a CC is more than it costs to COMMUTE to a CSU. Did you apply to a CSU that you can commute to? </p>
<p>What is your local CC?</p>
<p>What is your intended major? </p>
<p>What schools accepted you for next fall? </p>
<p>Did you get accepted to any UCs? Because if you did and your mom’s income is less than $80k, you’d qualify for Blue and Gold.</p>
<p>You really need to live at home and commute. That is like getting about $10k per year in aid. You’re not going to be able to afford to live in some pricey area and go to school.</p>
<p>I just read that UCLA received an absurdly high number of applications this year (I think it was over 70K). It may be safer to aim mainly towards other UCs, etc.</p>
<p>I want to stay in Northern California. Yes I am aware that other JCs of TAP but Foothill are they only JCs in Northern California that offer it to BOTH uc Berkeley and UCLA which is want I want. There are a lot of JCs that offer it to one and not the other. As far as commuting to a local CSU, the closest one to me is in San Jose which is an hour commute and freshman are required to live on campus if they live outside a 40 mile radius, which I do so a CSU really isn’t an option.</p>
<p>I know that UC Berkeley and UCLA is aiming high, but that is where I wish to put my focus. I will be applying as a transfer to other UCs, but those two schools are my priority.</p>
<p>Well, the problem is that your short-term goals are not affordable. You can’t earn enough to go to school full time, pay for college, and pay for rent in the areas that you want. </p>
<p>At a minimum, you could commute to your local CC for a year or two, and then transfer. The bottom line is that you will be restricted by your budget. You can only borrow the following amounts:</p>
<p>frosh: 5500
soph: 6500
jr: 7500
sr: 7500</p>
<p>As you can see, none of those amounts will pay for your plans. $7500 per year won’t pay for a UC obviously since those cost over $32k these days…likely higher in 2 more years. </p>
<p>You need to come up with a more reasonable plan, such as: </p>
<p>Commute to your local CC for two years, work/save as much as you can during the school year and summers to set aside money for your last two years.</p>
<p>Transfer to a CSU and use your “saved money”, your student loan, and some current work income to pay for those last 2 years.</p>
<p>What is your career goal? What is your major?</p>
<p>I think you have to pick one TAP or the other, given the info you have at hand. You will have TAP for Berkeley or LA, at the chosen CC and you work your buns off to do well enough to have the best chance of getting spot at a transfer through the program at one and through regular channels through the other. If you can’t do that, you transfer to a Cal State, and either find a cheap room off campus or commute, whatever is the more affordable. Open up an account maybe with your mom as the primary holder with her ssn first and ask if she can put a little money in each year that she is saving with you going to cc these two years, and you do the same with whatever you can stash, and borrow the full Staffords as well, so that you will have the maximum funds possible and more flexibility your third year. Or ask for exemption from the dorms freshman year and go to San Jose.</p>
<p>I know it’s a tough go when parents can’t or won’t pay for college, and the fin aid calculators say they do. It does hamstring you. It’s a tough go, I agree since you can’t get aid and yet your parents aren’t going to give you the money and you are 18 years old with no way to get the funds. It’s unfair, and I’m sorry. </p>
<p>The good thing is that you are in a state with a great college/university system, and if you work it right you can get a great education. An old friend of mine just could not come up with the money and her DD had to cobble it together and got her degree from Chico which was not her choice at all. She’s now working on her PHD at Berkeley, living in Oakland and loving her life. Wouldn’t change it a bit either as she has met the love her life there and loves her work and the academic area that is a good part of her life. It did all come together, but not when she wanted it. But she will also admit that at age 18, it really did not matter where she started going to school. Like a wine, she took time to develop the way she did, and as a stand out student in schools where so many were not, she got opportunities that she would have had to fight for and likely not gotten in schools like UCLA and Berkeley where the spoils left over from the top rate grad students go to the perfect SAT kids who are the top of the heap. She was a good student but not one of them and rather than being a hyena waiting for what’s left at such schools she got the prime meat in a school system that is rated right up there. So don’t write off the Cal states so quickly.</p>