I heard that the UCs give no financial aid to out of state students and besides that they only let the student take on a certain amount of loans and have the parents pay the rest? If anyone can explain how financial aid and loans work there, especially for upper middle income families, that would be great. Also, how does in state tuition work after living there for 2 years? I heard that the student has to go independent but I’m not quite sure what that entails.
You won’t get instate rates unless your parents move to CA.
If you fill out the FASFA, as a student you can take up to a total of $27K ($5500 Freshman, $6500 Sophomore, $7500 Junior/Senior) over 4 years in loans. Any amounts over this will have to taken by your parents. The UC’s cost around $55K/year as an OOS student and they will give some merit aid in the form of Regents scholarships and other various scholarships which can range from $2500-10,000/year but they are very competitive and given usually to the top 1% of applicants.
To establish residency, you and your family need to move to California and must be in the state 365 days prior to filing for in-state residency for tuition purposes. Here is a link on how to establish California residency which is not easy.
Your choices are:
- go to a UC and pay the entire OOS cost
- don’t go to a UC