Hi! As I am developing my college list, I have been looking at the tuition and average COAs at the schools on my list and have some questions. I have all California schools on my list, except for my 1 in-state safety (ASU).
On my list, there are 6 privates (Santa Clara, Pepperdine, Stanford, USC, USD, LMU) and 5 publics-- 3 UCs (UCLA, UCSB, UCD) and 2 Cal States (Cal Poly SLO and SDSU). I know that tuition at Cal States is significantly lower than at the UCs, and that tuition at the publics is less than at the privates.
However, are the average merit scholarships awarded by private universities enough to make the privates cost less overall than the publics? I know that publics don’t give scholarships to OOS applicants, but it still seems like they would be less expensive than the privates on my list unless I received significant merit scholarships.
I think you would probably just have to run the Net Price Calculator to see where you end up for all of them. An average won’t help!
My D attends LMU, got a good merit scholarship as an out of stater, but it is still expensive. From a super quick search comparing sticker price of LMU to UCLA out of state, it looks like she is paying less for LMU than UCLA full price would be, from her merit scholarship, but it’s close.
The privates offer need-based aid OOS. Some of the privates also include a merit scholarship estimate in their Net Price Calculators. Where the NPC asks for test scores and/or grades, it might provide a merit estimate. Full cost of attendance at the privates tends to be around 70-ish, depending on the school, before merit or need-based aid. (USC and Stanford are in the high 70s.) Try their NPCs.
If I recall, the OOS cost of attendance for Cal Poly is in the upper 40s and going up 2k per year (OOS “opportunity fee”) for another couple of years, settling under 50k.
The cost of attendance for UCLA is 67k out of state.
As stated above, you need to run the Net price calculators on all schools of interest. Your stats and if you have test scores, could determine the amount of merit scholarships you would get at the private schools.
A combination of merit and need based aid can bring the costs down into the $40K range for some of the privates. Anything below that threshold would be tough. For example: The maximum merit at USD would be $25K leaving around $42K+ for tuition/room/board not including books, transpotation and personal expenses. If you eligible for some need based aid such as Pell grants, then the costs could be lower.
Again, what are your parents willing to pay/year? Until you have a budget confirmed, this us an exercise in futility.
Check out each schools website for scholarship information.
Just remember that if you require merit scholarships to make the school affordable to attend, then it makes these schools Reach schools unless they are automatic based on stats only.
@TS0104@evergreen5@Gumbymom thanks for all the responses! As I explained in one of my other threads, my parents are divorced and other users said that this makes the NPCs not as accurate. Also, I will not qualify for need-based aid.
Hi! As I am developing my college list, I have been looking at the tuition and average COAs at the schools on my list and have some questions. I have all California schools on my list, except for my 1 in-state safety (ASU).
On my list, there are 6 privates (Santa Clara, Pepperdine, Stanford, USC, USD, LMU) and 5 publics-- 3 UCs (UCLA, UCSB, UCD) and 2 Cal States (Cal Poly SLO and SDSU). I know that tuition at Cal States is significantly lower than at the UCs, and that tuition at the publics is less than at the privates.
However, are the average merit scholarships awarded by private universities enough to make the privates cost less overall than the publics? I know that publics don’t give scholarships to OOS applicants, but it still seems like they would be less expensive than the privates on my list unless I received significant merit scholarships.
Assuming you mean for colleges which require both divorced parents’ finances for financial aid…
Some of the NPCs could be accurate for divorced parents if you can get accurate financial information from both parents and include all of that on the NPCs. Many divorced parents are not cooperative and do not want to reveal to each other their finances, so getting accurate financial information from both parents is unlikely. But if they are cooperative enough to give you accurate financial information, then you may get reasonable estimates from the NPCs.
Of course, for colleges that use only the finances of the parent you live with, this is not an issue for their NPCs, if you have accurate finances of the parent you live with.
What are your parents willing and able to pay for College for you? Yes, the UCs could be less expensive than many if not most private schools on your list, but if you cannot pay what they cost, it’s a moot point. There are private schools with sticker prices less than the UCs and there are merit awards at some private schools that can bring the cost down to you to be low UC price. You have to get those scholarships, as well as getting accepted to those schools.
I know a local family here on the East Coast whose son is attending UC Davis. It is costing them more than what their in state flagship would cost, more than double. However it’s still cheaper than some of the private schools that were under consideration. UC Davis does cost more than some other state school that were also on the list, but less than some state schools such as UVA, or UMichigan that are popular among students here.
For whatever reason, despite the high rankings most of the UCs get, they are not as big of a draw as some other state schools are for out of staters. My guess is that name recognition (which other than Berkeley and LA) , isn’t as strong as say, Big Ten schools.
The big question you need to ask your parents, is the cost constraint.