<p>"Fed up with tuition increases and frustrated by rejection at packed California universities, more high school graduates than ever are ditching the state to attend college.</p>
<p>Boise State saw its freshmen enrollment from California rise tenfold during the last decade. Arizona State doubled its enrollment of freshmen from California. The University of Oregon has quadrupled it, with freshman enrollment from California growing from 280 in 2000 to 1,100 in 2010.</p>
<p>‘We are thrilled with the students we get out of California,’ said Roger Thompson, vice provost at the University of Oregon. ‘We’ve seen remarkable growth, predominantly out of Northern California.’" …</p>
<p>Interesting article. I have one child at a UC. The other really wants to go to a UC. However there is no telling if he will be admitted, so many students with stats similar to his, 2100+ in SAT and 4.0+ GPAs were rejected this year. He will be applying in the fall to private and out of state schools as a backup, don’t think CSU would be worth if they can’t graduate in four years. We are hoping that the costs will equal out if he has to go out of state with financial aid /scholarhips that they may offer. We know he won’t get much from a UC if gets accepted. Either way we will be taking out loans. We did what we were suppose to do, saved money for their college education, kept driving old vehicles, didn’t fix up the house to make it all pretty, just what we needed to do to live in it, didn’t go on expensive vacations, etc… And now all the money we saved for their college won’t cover the costs for four years because of all the hikes in tuition.</p>
<p>I also have one child at a UC, and another preparing to apply this fall. We also saved, but always knew we would never cover full cost without some loans. I’m more concerned about the inability to even get admitted than the cost. </p>
<p>I’m definitely going to urge D to apply to both publics and private.</p>
<p>It’s too expensive for middle class families to afford a UC education. The financial aid system really favors lower income families and the in-state tuition price favors the upper class families. Middle class families are better off going to private schools with more generous aid. A UC would cost me $25k a year while Cornell is going to cost me $13k.</p>
<p>For me personally, I only applied to UC Davis because it was close and my grandparents own apartments down there where I could have free rent. I got good aid from Davis (no Regents) but it was loan heavy and there was a UG scholarship (one year only). I chose an OOS private school because it offered me more aid! I know a few of my classmates in NorCal are choosing privates (Stanford, Case Western, Johns Hopkins) but the overwhelming majority chose a CSU or UC. Many of the students are shocked when I tell them it is cheaper to go to a private school than a UC, and they only applied to CSU’s or UC’s because they think privates will always cost 50-60,000. This is very discouraging to me that so many students (that could get into top aid schools) do not even apply to privates schools because they do not know that the top privates give tremendous need-based aid.</p>
<p>^ The problem is with the private schools’ definition of “need”. A family earning ~$120,000/yr with some retirement savings and little debt receives no aid. Some schools offer merit money, but many do not. So the $30,000 full pay at a UC, most of which are still ranked in the top 10 of public universities, is still a bargain compared to the $50-60K cost of a private school.</p>
<p>I would not say 120,000 would be the cutoff for aid at some of the top schools though, but likely would not be enough aid to lower costs below UC costs.</p>
<p>I’m one of those NorCal kids heading out of state to a private college. With merit aid and grants, my family will be paying about half the amount of a UC plus I can graduate on time. UC’s were a great option years ago, but now with the budget cuts it is almost impossible to graduate in four years. Most people I know attending one will graduate in about five. For most middle class families, it is more affordable to go to a private college.</p>
<p>Based on my own experience, I cannot speak strongly enough about encouraging your children to apply out of state. My DS in 2010 received approximately $700K in merit money from 9 out of the 10 out of state colleges where he was accepted including two full-rides. He did not receive a single penny from a California school (our home state). My son was a good student but not a valedictorian, and his SAT’s were not over 2000. I am happy to report that his is finishing up his sophomore year at The Ohio State University where he is attending on a completely full-ride (merit). He entered in the Honors College so he got special dorms which he really liked and priority registration and extra advisors. He loves the school and I love getting the bill with a “zero” in amount due. We only pay for his air fare. We make $1 too much for fasfa so getting merit money was very important.</p>
<p>For parents wanting to know more about California kids doing better with money out of state I highly recommend they read the book “The College Solution : A Guide For Everyone Looking For the Right School at The Right Price” by Lynn O’Shaughnessy. I attended one of Lynn’s workshops that she gives locally and am so glad. It was the best, most informative lecture I had ever heard on the college admissions process. The second edition of her book just came out last week and I just finished it-wonderful read!!! If you buy it be sure to get the second edition because there has been some new college funding developments.</p>
<p>For example Lynn taught me about “college net price calculators” and scholarship calculators that colleges now must have. If your child finds a college they are interested be sure to input their data into the calculators. It will give you a good idea as to what kind of money they could expect from the school. I just did this last night for DD and with a 1220 and a 3.5 my DD would get $12K a year merit from Baylor and Missouri Tech (I think those were the school)which makes them cheaper than a UC. </p>
<p>She also explained “common data sets” which each college must have. Being able to interpret that data taught us which schools give better merit money and which give better financial aid. We could then target such schools.</p>
<p>I do agree the state of higher-education in California makes me extremely sad. My father taught in California high education for over 35 years and I grew up on college campuses (my mom was once a “dorm mother”.) I myself went to a private Cal college for undergrad and UCLA for law school. Graduating without a lot of debt and on time is so important these days that I think out of state for our local student is the best option. They can always come back for graduate school.</p>
<p>I’m sure it varies wildly depending on where you go and what financial aid is offered, but I looked at attending out of state and decided I couldn’t afford it vs. a CSU. The cost of out of state tuition coupled with the cost of moving is still very prohibitive.</p>
<p>I imagine if you’re going with a UC or a private college the costs do change considerably.</p>
<p>I like how the article makes it seem like students are voluntarily leaving California for bigger and better places/universities. Most of these students unfortunately did not get accepted into the school they wanted and that is why they are leaving - public schools in the nation on average are raising their tuition by ~5% a year whether it is UCs or Boise State etc. More and more students (by the thousands) each year are getting rejected from Cal and UCLA and have to settle with lower UCs or out of state options. The UC is still the top public education system in the nation. Will it stay that way? Absolutely no idea, I hope so.</p>
<p>For the right California students there are some terrific bargains in New York State, public as well as private. Currently only 2% of SUNY Geneseo’s student body hails from outside NYS despite its strong academic reputation and bargain basement price of under $27,000 per year for non-NYers. That price includes tuition and fees, room and board.</p>
<p>A co-worker just told me that her kid (in-state, just accepted to UC Berkeley as a transfer student) will have to pay $200pp to attend his incoming student orientation. That’s $600 for the student and his 2 parents to attend (isn’t orientation mandatory?). Wow.</p>
<p>That’s just not true. At the tippy-top colleges, such a family would receive plenty of aid. Indeed, for most California middle class residents, it is less costly out-of-pocket to attend an Ivy than it is to attend a UC at instate rates. (Of course, the trick is getting in.)</p>
<p>But the fact is that even colleges ranked down in the 30’s offer pretty good need-based aid to many in the middle class.</p>
<p>I guess we were surprised that ‘need’ calculation was as much asset driven as income driven. The CSS Profile tallied everything except the change under cushions in the sofa. With the income cited above, we were offered zero need based aid, and a modicum of merit $. We’re not talking tippy top, we’re talking top 30 private LACs & U’s. It’s true there were some good offers from out of state public U’s, but in the end UC won out for location and breadth of programs. Time will tell if it was the best decision.</p>