For many of the instate California options, room and board costs tip the scales. The room&board estimate is for my kid’s current OOS offer is 5K less than my older kid’s instate on-campus housing (and many of the UCs are triples for the first year.)
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He’s accepted to University of Arizona too. They gave him a 20k scholarship, but that would only bring it down to 38k a year, so it’s off the table. They use only unweighted gpa in their calculation, and my son goes to a very rigorous school that does not graduate unweighted 4.0s. His out of state safeties were Purdue, Alabama, and Arizona. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say he may be shut out in California for schools we’d pay full boat for. We knew Alabama would be a full ride for him, so it was a no brainer as a safety.
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My D19 wanted an urban campus back in the day. She liked Pitt, Loyola Chi and Boston U. It wasn’t until April of senior year HS I got her to visit MiamiOH. I had made her apply there and she got plenty of scholarships. Oxford OH is a bit out in the sticks for sure. 45 mins from the north burbs of Cincinnati. But it is a classic college town. Everything is close. It is very walkable. D19 said to me somewhat recently that she realizes now that doing stuff in and around an urban campus is more expensive. I always contended that if you get 16,000 18-22 year olds in an area you have to be able to find something fun to do.
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Huh.
I just looked it up, as I’m in PA and we are usually worst or second worst.
Here’s what I found - average costs in Cali are pretty cheap, tuition-wise - highest tuition is about $11.5k - $13k (much cheaper than PA).
It’s the room and board that are so expensive!
Cali vs PA: 2023 Average College Tuition By State
https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/tuition-financial-aid/tuition-cost-of-attendance/
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I don’t recall exactly where home (and thus a two-hour radius) is for you, but California has a wealth of really, really good colleges, both public and private that are quite affordable (even considering room and board costs) once merit aid is factored in, though most certainly don’t have the prestige of, say, Berkeley or Stanford.
When you say full ride is he an NMF? Or URM ? Otherwise the most of $28k.
Yes Zona is unweighted and no test score but even if weighted like a Miami, it’d adjust for rigor.
I assume at the time of application that he didn’t know he wanted to be close to home ?
Otherwise I’d argue the list was wrong - ie Purdue and Bama. But that’s neither here nor there. But for others if you have must have parameters then you have to incorporate when building a list.
Well I hope it all works out - there are still closer but not super close - like Reno or UNM that could come in low. Or how about community college to stay local ?
What I love about Bama and AZ, they post their ranges so you knew up front b4 applying.
Anyway I look forward to your final decision and hope a local comes in at the right price.
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We’re in the Los Angeles area. USC could come back with some merit, but might not. He likely won’t get in. He wants a big research university, so that took a lot of potential schools off the list.
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He’s URM, national recognition Hispanic scholar. He did know he wanted to be close to home, but he may not get in anywhere here he’d want to go. We’ll know in March.
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Good luck. We have a wait until March as well although my D has some great options on the table. Kind of like your Son in that she has great options but wants to be closer to home and go to ye olde Flagship!
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Did he get more than the Diversity scholarship at Bama? S23 is also offered the Diversity scholarship at Alabama as a Rural Recognition, and it is good and we are thankful, but it will still cost room and board (except the room is covered freshman year.) If we hadn’t moved to a new school his junior year, he would likely have been able to get their NMF full-ride, which is much better.
I am just wondering if you managed to stack something on the Diversity scholarship at Bama to get to a full ride.
Mine chose Bama due to being close to home and the dorm. But he never really stated it.
And he’ll deny it. But he wanted to be close to mom. He’s 3.5 hrs. It does have its advantages.
And for me it saved $80k over Purdue (with merit). Win win 
It’ll work out somehow some way.
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The letter said full tuition 4 years, dorm first year, $1000 stipend 4 years. Compared to what we’d pay in California we figured subsequent years room and board would be negligible, lol. It sounds like they’d be generous with accepting dual credit, so he’d likely only be there 2-3 years.
I think that site is wrong, or there’s something about it I don’t understand.
It lists Massachusetts in-state tuition as under $9000 a year. But the tuition for in-state at the UMass schools is over $17,000 per year. Room and board is another 17,000+. The “flagship“ campus at Amherst (basically) doesn’t give scholarships to in-state students, the other three UMass schools to give scholarships to in-state students.
Maybe it is averaging in all the MA state universities? But even then most of those have tuition between 12,000 and 14,000 per year. Even the community colleges are between 10,000 and 12,000 per year.
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Unfortunately, this whole college process is not black and white nor is it one-size fits all.
I have a D19 and a D23. I approached the whole process as keeping options open as long as possible and trying to communicate with my students as well as possible even though talking to teenagers is not a fun activity.
My better half and I had a set amount of money we could contribute to the process. This is where the options are needed because that amount wasn’t full pay. D19 was high stats. In the end with her many applications submitted she had schools that were (per year) $5K-$40 for COA. She had some of these because I insisted she apply to a few schools. In the end she picked a school that was basically the amount of the budget. She was going to be short, but she grabbed some departmental scholarships and we have come out basically on budget and she hasn’t had to take out any loans. She could have done it cheaper and she could have done it more expensively.
Here is the rub that doesn’t make things black and white and tough to have a final number before starting apps. At one school the merit scholarships had a range of about $11-12K per year based on her scores. Well at the top of the range it would work at the bottom of the range the school would be too expensive. Should she have not applied to that school. The same goes for competitive scholarships. She competed for some full tuition and full COA. She was close on one for sure. Without the competitive scholarship the school wasn’t attractive and cost too much. That is the tough part of the process to me. In Sept-Oct you can’t know all the final numbers. We play this game and the students write essays and do interviews and extra apps all in the hopes of making a school affordable.
Lastly, on this board we can argue until the cows come home on whether one school is more valuable or worth $XXX than another school. For some $270K won’t affect their life in one bit, but for others having that money might reshape their future. But going to a certain school might open the right door for a student and change their future as well and spending a certain amount could end up being so small to them in hindsight it was a no brainer.
We are all different with different kids. In the end we do the best we can with the information we have at this time. Nothing is set in stone.
I have a child that was going to be a BioChem & Span major on the way to med school four years ago. Now she is a Bio & Span major on the way to being a HS teacher. If I would have known that 4 years ago we might have taken a different route. I also have a friend that 4 years ago their student was going the route of PolSci & another major. Well the kid is getting both degrees but now wants to be an electrician and some day start his own company. That will take some time for sure. You just do the best with the info you have at the time. I try to be a little conservative at least in terms of $$$ because that gives you options.
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Yes, that is what we have. If your son were to go there, he might decide to stay the whole four years instead. It is really fun!
But the NMF get a real full-ride, so my son is a bit jealous of that. The room and board adds up for him. It is like $15,000 for years 2-4. He might still choose there. Depends on the next few months of scholarship competitions and some visits.
My husband seems to think the four year offer could include grad school, but I’m not sure if that’s true? Our son is leaving high school with his associates degree.
My younger son (S24) is right on the border for NMSF cutoff for our state and we won’t now until next fall. Every time I try to get him to think about what he wants in a college he says, “ What does it matter? If I make NMSF you’re just going to make me go to Alabama.” 
(I won’t but I might highly encourage it…)
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This is totally true! Can be used for graduate school, business, or law!
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To the Bama-admitted kids, bear in mind that the huge scholarships are ALL applicable to overseas study. I’ve seen talk on the Bama admitted students FB page of getting refund checks, as certain destinations don’t cost nearly as much as the scholarships. And there seems to be the ability to do multiple semesters overseas.
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Why would they lie? CC is anonymous. If anything, this is the one place people tend to be honest.
Of course, I understand that many times people assume others are lying if they disagree with their response. We see it all the time.
I only offered it up as further information for those who are contemplating what to do. Feel free to completely disregard it if you think the posters are being disingenuous.
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