<p>Once again, thanks everyone for your input 
I feel much better about my situation now that I have some more affordable options on my list.</p>
<p>I was originally upset when the news broke because I never saw myself going to a UC or a large university. But now I realize that I limited myself by only looking at LACs and there’s plenty of other choices out there.</p>
<p>Sara, Based on kids I personally know from the last two years, the following LACs and small to mid-sized schools on the west coast awarded enough merit aid so that the total cost of attendance was the same OR LESS than the UCs. Merit aid was not dependent on need. These schools are: Willamette University, Lewis and Clark College, University of Portland, Seatle University, University of Puget Sound, Loyola Marymount University, University of Redlands. Although the Oregon schools will lack the diversity you desire, Seatle U, LMU, and Redlands are pretty diverse campuses. Also SCU and Chapman are fairy diverse.</p>
<p>These kids are all good students, involved in sports or band and similar high school ECs. They had strong but not stellar test scores. None of them aspired to the ivies and several turned down more than one UC for the smaller school.</p>
<p>If you really know that you want to attend a small school, you will not have to pay more than a UC if you apply to a wide range of schools. There are pros and cons to each kind of school, and you never know how you will feel next April. The kids I know are happy at their respective schools, and the small discussion based class size was the big draw. I also know kids thriving at UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, and USCB.</p>
<p>I also sugest Occidental and I have heard good things about the University of San Diego. You will have a lot of exellent choices with your grades and test scores.</p>
<p>USC entering class of 2011
Race/Ethnicity
African American 7%
Latino / Hispanic 12%
Native American / Pacific Islander 2%
Asian / Asian American 25%
Caucasian 39%
International (student visa holders) 15%</p>
<p>as you can see, USC is very ethnically diverse. whites are in the minority. It feels very much like many parts of the SF bay area.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1112/USCFreshmanProfile2011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1112/USCFreshmanProfile2011.pdf</a></p>
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<p>I think that’s a problem with most LAC’s, not just the ones that offer merit aid. Obviously the handful of top LAC’s that can afford to be generous with need based aid have an extra tool at their disposal to attract a more diverse student body, but I think you would find if you visited that the rural and suburban campuses just have a hard time making it happen. </p>
<p>That is one extra thing to consider though. If you are at a rural college in a small town, and frustrated by lack of diversity on campus… there’s not much you can do about it. If you are at a suburban campus near a major metropolitan area or urban campus, and feel that your campus lacks diversity – you may find that you can get involved with activities off campus that fill that gap. </p>
<p>Aside from the racial/ethnic issues, there is another kind of diversity that is difficult for small LAC’s to achieve – you will find that a larger university campus is also more diverse in terms of age and background of the students, with the presence of grad student and mix of non-traditional or part time students along with 18 & 19 year olds following a traditional path to college. I’m not saying that one is better than the other – just that it is a factor to consider as well. </p>
<p>I’m glad you have an open mind and are considering various options. It sounds like you are an extremely capable student and will do extremely well in a variety of academic settings.</p>
<p>Sorry, I wasn’t thinking about CA prices. In my area, a 1 million dollar home would be a palace. There are several LACs out there that will offer merit aid and do have the diversity of non-traditional students. Guilford for example, has a strong on presence of undergrads but 50% in non-traditional students. Not that I’m suggesting the school for you, it’s just an example I know of.</p>
<p>OP, if your parents are willing to pay for UC that’s going to be $30k a year COA. Or is $20k the most they’re willing to pay a year? If so, then you should definitely be looking for merit money elsewhere.</p>
<p>Here’s a reality check on what $1 million would buy in the SF Bay area:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/112748/million-dollar-homes-across-america-cnbc]million-dollar-homes-across-america-cnbc:”>http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/112748/million-dollar-homes-across-america-cnbc]million-dollar-homes-across-america-cnbc:</a> Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance<a href=“Note%20that%20the%201500%20square%20foot,%203-bedroom%20home%20in%20SF%20that%20is%20shown%20costs%20$1.25%20million”>/url</a></p>
<p>OP, I can’t remember if you’ve already combed through <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html</a> where you’ll want to start from the end…but I suggest you do take a careful look at the list. Pay careful attention to the schools that the original poster there (Keilexandra) noted as being schools she personally found noteworthy, since she also had a strong preference for LACs. </p>
<p>Depending on your interests, the UCSB College of Creative Studies may also be right up your alley. UC price, LAC-esque experience, everyone’s happy.</p>
<p>[San</a> Francisco, CA real estate overview - Trulia.com](<a href=“http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/San_Francisco-California/]San”>http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/San_Francisco-California/)</p>
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<p>[Oakland</a>, CA real estate overview - Trulia.com](<a href=“Trulia: Real Estate Listings, Homes For Sale, Housing Data”>Trulia: Real Estate Listings, Homes For Sale, Housing Data)</p>
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<p>[Berkeley</a>, CA real estate overview - Trulia.com](<a href=“Trulia: Real Estate Listings, Homes For Sale, Housing Data”>http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Berkeley-California/)</p>
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<p>Sounds to me like there are an awful lot of homes in the Bay Area selling for a lot less than $1 million.</p>
<p>There are some seriously sketchy areas in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland. </p>
<p>We of course know nothing of the OP’s family’s situation or finances, let alone the specifics of one real estate deal. The OP impresses me as mature and poised, but teenagers don’t necessarily know all that’s going on behind the scenes, especially with family finances. All we can garner is that the family has a lot of equity, which will show up on the Profile.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, we live in an small “retirement” city where not a single house will sell for under 1 million. It’s very common for people to buy 2 or 3 million dollar homes and we have houses (mansions?) selling for upwards of 10 million dollars.</p>
<p>It’s completely insane, I know 
So while there are a lot of places that sell for less in the Bay Area, we can’t buy outside or else we’ll be kicked out of the school district.</p>
<p>And kelliebeff, thank you for the list of schools. That was extremely helpful. I’ve put a few of those on my list now (SCU, Oxy, University of Puget Sound).</p>
<p>@Slithey: They said $20,000 for schools that they haven’t heard of, but I’m starting to think that it was an arbitrary statement. I’ll talk to them tonight and see what they really think!</p>
<p>@calmom: Yea, I’m starting to rethink schools located in really rural places. I’ve had a few interviews with past alumni from those colleges and they said that it was stifling at times and it made the campus seem smaller. However, they loved the overall experience there so it couldn’t have been that bad!</p>
<p>@menloparkmom: I’m starting to like USC more and more :)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>@Slithey: Wow, thank you so much for letting me know about UCSB’s College of Creative Studies. I had no idea this existed. It looks like something I would definitely consider!</p>
<p>And yes, I’ve been combing through all of Keilexandra’s threads. They’ve been extremely helpful :)</p>
<p>*There are some seriously sketchy areas in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland. *</p>
<p>Exactly…that’s why “avg home prices” doesn’t tell the whole story. Yes, there’s cheap housing in high-crime areas and/or horrible school zones, but who is going to want to subject their families to that if there are other options.</p>
<p>annasdad did not post the average home prices for those areas…he posted the median prices. That’s a significant difference and one could reasonably conclude that buying a home for 1.5x the median was a personal choice, not a necessity. Paying cash for the $1M home is obviously another personal choice. I’m not saying either were poor choices but I think the parents have made their financial priorities clear.</p>
<p>You don’t know what community the OP is in. The median home price in Palo Alto is $1.6 million. Here’s what you can get there for $1 million:
[PALO</a> ALTO, CA Real Estate Market Report for October 09 2011](<a href=“http://www.altosresearch.com/research/CA/palo-alto-real-estate-market]PALO”>http://www.altosresearch.com/research/CA/palo-alto-real-estate-market)</p>
<p>People choose to live in Palo Alto in part because of excellent public schools. </p>
<p>That’s “west” Palo Alto, of course. In East Palo Alto, per capita income is about $18K, and an equivalent size home might be listed for $250K. There, the neighborhoods offer excellent access to street drugs and gangs. But perhaps if a parent opted to buy a foreclosed, fixer-upper there to preserve assets to send their kid off to a pricey LAC, CC’er would be happy to see that they had their priorities straight.</p>
<p>It’s not as if the OP’s parents are telling the kid to get lost. They just figure that their kid can probably get a decent education at Berkeley or UC Davis and aren’t all that eager to pay more out of pocket. It sounds to me like, skewed “priorities” and all, they’ve managed to raise a nice, well-adjusted kid who apparently can survive the horrors of attending USC or Occidental or (shudder) UCSB.</p>
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<p>Something to tell your parents: many (most?) of us parents here started hunting around for schools without knowing about very many places. That’s especially true in California, where we have the UCs which makes many families think “why go elsewhere?” But as you start digging around here on CC, you learn about more and more places. You even end up becoming a big fan of places that you’d never heard of before reading CC. I’m not the only parent whose become a big fan of schools that my own child didn’t even apply to. 
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<p>Bottom line: it’s worth it for your parents to be willing to learn about other schools you want to consider. They need to give you a budget, but I’d suggest that if they can afford the COA for UC then they should give you that budget to use elsewhere.</p>
<p>No need to be snarky, calmom, I wasn’t questioning their priorities and specifically stated that. I have no dog in that fight and was only pointing out that the median home price was different than the “average” term that M2CK used. Sheesh…</p>
<p>OP</p>
<p>When you have a discussion with your parents about cost and what they are willing to pay for schools they have not heard of, please be sure to discuss the CA budget crisis. It is important to compare apples to apples. At many LACs you are able to graduate in 4 years. With the many difficulties I have heard about in the UCs graduation would likely be 5 years or more.</p>
<p>The graduation rate thing is something of a myth. Kids who come in with AP credit and plan their schedule will have a leg up and often can graduate early. None of my d’s friends who opted for UC’s took longer than 4 years to graduate. </p>
<p>But as a UC grad myself, I know that there are plenty of students who either need to take extra courses like the basic non-credit English writing course that kids with higher SAT’s are exempt from, as well as plenty who don’t do a good job planning, such as taking only 12 units a quarter, etc. </p>
<p>Plus the whole 5-years-to-graduate thing seems to be a favorite CC myth among those who want to rationalize the cost of private schools. I actually saw my son’s choice of a LAC creating a much bigger barrier – he messed up his first year and there was no easy way to make up the course – so if he had stayed at the LAC it would have been impossible to graduate in 4 semesters – whereas the UC’s all have summer sessions, and they also will accept transfer credit for lower division courses from the community colleges. The OP is unlikely to encounter that issue.</p>
<p>Hi, just wanted to do a quick update and thank everyone once again for their help. This thread helped me expand my college list and realize that I would be happy anywhere; and in the future, I shouldn’t pigeon-hole myself into liking just one “type” of school. I’ve learned a lot out of this college application process!</p>
<p>But good news: I applied to Pomona ED, miraculously got accepted, and my parents are willing to pay for my top choice </p>
<p>It’ll be hard on their pockets though (since we didn’t qualify for financial aid) so now onto the scholarship search…</p>