<p>So I was accepted into UGA, UPitt, and Berkeley. I really want to go to Berkeley but the cost for out-of-state students is 53K/year. With grants and work-study, 26K is covered but that still leaves me with 27K to pay which is about the yearly income of my family. </p>
<p>I've read that most Berkeley undergrads graduate with about 15K debt but I'm looking at 107K because I'm out-of-state. </p>
<p>I know that I will constantly be applying for scholarships while in school but that really won't affect the magnitude of my debt. Any tips, help, advice, etc??</p>
<p>To be blunt, you can’t afford Berkeley. Time to move on. You have two other great choices, so start thinking about the schools you can afford.</p>
<p>You can borrow a maximum of $5,500 as a freshman. Anything more would have to be borrowed by your parents as a PLUS loan, and given their income, it’s extraordinarily unlikely that they’ll even be approved to take out such large debt.</p>
<p>How much are your other options costing you? Your loan burden at Berkeley is awfully high for an undergrad, and to ask your parents to co sign is adding to their financial stress and load. Hopefully, you do have some affordable choices. </p>
<p>If you are looking at loan burden figures,they do not count PLUS and outside loans, just what the student gets which are generally Stafford and Perkins. </p>
<p>You did get a very generous package from Berkeley, being an OOSer. To be congratulated, but it still leaves a huge gap that is not worth it. You are putting in great perspective in saying that it is equal to what your family income is.</p>
<p>Berkeley is unaffordable for you. How to UGA and Pitt compare? Run the numbers here, and see what you think; [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid)</p>
<p>Where are you in-state? Both Pitt and UGA are great schools and being from GA myself, UGA is a steal for in-state students. You should look at your packages from those schools assuming that they are better than Berkeley’s.</p>
<p>This is one of many threads this year from OOS students who did not receive enough financial aid to attend Berkeley. Berkeley is part of the UC system. CA is having huge financial issues as a state. There is speculation that the UCs accepted OOS student BECAUSE they have to pay more. </p>
<p>In any event…MOST students who are looking at attending OOS public universities are disappointed with the aid they receive. These states have an obligation to help fund their residents whose families support these schools with their taxes…and not OOS students who don’t. There are some OOS schools that do offer generous MERIT aid to top students from other states. Berkeley isn’t one of them. Need based aid at public universities is usually federal (or state) money…not large institutional money. The amount that the federally funded aid would provide an OOS student to attend Berkeley is a drop in the bucket.</p>
<p>Hopefully you have a more affordable option on your accepted school list.</p>
<p>Given that you got into Berkely and you indicate you are from GA, I would imagine UGA is your best bet financially. I suspect you will receive full HOPE, but certainly HOPE lite.</p>
<p>What are your long term plans? Does graduate school figure into it? If so, go to UGA and then look further out for graduate school.</p>
<p>Berkeley is NOT affordable. You will not be able to get enough private scholarships each year to lessen the need for big debt. Berkeley’s COA also doesn’t really account for cross-country travel…so you’d also need to add in a couple of round trip airfares and airport shuttles in there as well…which easily can be another 1,000 per year.</p>
<p>With grants and work-study, 26K is covered</p>
<p>^^^ You probably also have at least 5500 in loans in that FA award.</p>
<p>The dream is your future career…not 4 years in college. </p>
<p>You’re instate for UGA…go there…you have Hope</p>
<p>What a college gives you is irrelevant. It’s the bottom line, what it costs you in terms of current and future dollars (in the form of loans) is what counts.</p>
<p>konjotsi,</p>
<p>I lived in Atlanta for a while. UGA has a great reputation and is well thought of. How about Berkeley for grad school?</p>
<p>Sorry for the late reply everyone. I have decided to attend Berkeley with the support of my family. If the decision would have been against their wishes, I would have stayed in-state. I am currently working on being admitted into Cal’s College of Engineering to work toward civil engineering. </p>
<p>This was definitely not an easy decision for me. Again, thank you to everyone that gave me some insight into this. UC Berkeley is not the right choice for all OOSers because of the cost. It really does depend on the major and future career path. </p>
<p>Sent from my HTC Glacier using CC App</p>
<p>Thank you for the update. Have a good year at Berkeley!</p>