<p>So I will be a college freshman last year and so far I have narrowed my choices of universities down to ASU, U Arizona, and Colorado State. I have decent aid and scholarships to all 3 (especially the Arizona schools). However my dream school is UC santa barbara. I love Isla Vista and everything about the school. I am going for environmental science and UCSB has a good program. But it would just be really expensive for me to go there. So as an alternative I have kind of wanted to go to the neighboring city college SBCC for two years and complete a transfer admissions guarantee agreement and go to UCSB for my final two years. One of my parents loves the idea, the other absolutely hates it, and the information I get is either heavily on one side or the other (saying I should go to SBCC or saying I should go to one of the previously listed 4 years). Is there anyone who has had any experience at ASU, UA, CSU, SBCC, or UCSB who actually goes to one of these schools who can lend me some good advice? Also I should mention that at SBCC I would be living in a private dorm right across from the UCSB campus and near their freshman dorms.</p>
<p>I hope you are not counting on being considered a CA resident after your time at SBCC. That won’t work.</p>
<p>No I’m not expecting to be.</p>
<p>If you can attend SBCC and save enough $ to attend UCSB then good for you. It will cost $55K/year for your time at UCSB so it will require significant savings. [Cost</a> of Attendance - UCSB Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.finaid.ucsb.edu/CostOfAttendance.aspx]Cost”>Cost of Attendance - UCSB Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships)</p>
<p>I would seriously consider the AZ schools.</p>
<p>Arizona and ASU are among the best in the world for geology, and Colorado State offers excellent programs in almost every subfield of environmental science (btw so do UA and ASU). Isla Vista is quite expensive, and you’d still be paying OOS prices for SBCC, not worth it, IMO. </p>
<p>Look into one of the three four year schools you got into. IMO they’re a much better deal than the SBCC -> Isla Vista. Btw, my cousin goes to SBCC and couldn’t get all of the classes he needed one semester. Boom! Now he’ll be spending three years at SBCC rather than two.</p>