Hello, I was recently accepted to ucb and ucla as an international student living in the states. I have never been this grateful and excited for it, but I am quite depressed that I may not be able to go to one of the uni because I and my family cannot afford the tuition. I plan to call the financial aid office, but does anyone here know if there is any way for an international student who is not from a rich family to afford the tuition in us?
Thank you:)
Not at those schools. They do not offer aid to internationals or even US non-CA students.
Is there any ways to afford the tuition during the school years (such as loan or scholarships)?
How much can your family afford? UC’s offer little to no financial aid to International students so you will be close to full pay. UC’s offer good need-based aid to California residents. Even out of state students get little to no aid.
Sorry, contacting the FA office will not help.
A less expensive solution is to attend community college for two years and then attend a CAL State. I don’t think anyone would advise that you attend a school solely on loans.
UCB and UCLA won’t be affordable. Have you been admitted to any affordable schools?
The short answer…these two schools are not going to give you money to attend them.
Many (most?) state schools only give financial aid to students within their state. The reason is they’re supported by state taxpayer money. If anyone comes in from out of state (US or International) they can expect to be full pay since they haven’t been paying taxes there.
There are some states that differ to various degrees, but CA is not among them. Those that tend to differ are trying to attract bright students to them, probably hoping they will then choose to settle in the state becoming taxpayers. CA is “attractive” enough as a destination for people that it doesn’t need to entice students to come. Plus, CA has many students who want to attend these schools, so spending money to bring in more outsiders would only add to overcrowding.
I hope you have other schools to choose from. If not, there are places still accepting applications if you’re interested in elsewhere. Those schools are not worth trying to go into excessive debt for either yourself or your parents. (IMO, no undergraduate school is.)
From your other threads it sounds like you’re in an urban area of Pennsylvania. Can your parents afford to pay for you to commute to school? Not paying room and board will cut costs a lot.
Well…if you are a resident of PA, you have two reasons why these two schools won’t give you aid.
You are not an instate CA resident.
You are an international student.
there is no financial aid at the UC’s for out of state students or internationals. That is made clear in the application material. You need to move on. You are not going to UCB or UCLA.
If your Family can’t afford the tuition now, they won’t be able to qualify for loans. That’s over a quarter of a million dollars for your time there. Doesn’t make any financial sense.
The websites delineate the costs associated with attending. I assume you didn’t research the financial aid pages for each UC.
The financial aid page, for UCB, Types of Aid - Office of Undergraduate Admissions
notes the following:
The problem with this option is that the expense of the non-resident fees at CCC and the Cal States, along with California sky-high rents, would eventually be the same costs as some of the privates. This student would STILL pay full fees at the CC, full fees at the Cal States and ~$2k month rents. He/she would not qualify, for instate resident tuition, because he/she would have arrived in California for educational purposes.
California can wait, until after graduation, if the student decides to apply for jobs here.
Just don’t do it. My D’s friend did this because ucb was the most prestigious school she got into (in spite of me warning her against it) and she ended up both in debt and dropping out for community college.