<p>thanks guys. guess I will have to go to CC for a few years. Wish it didnt have to come to this but I really dont have much of an option with UPS expecting me to pay 25K a year in loans. Just a shame I didnt go over this with someone else earlier.</p>
<p>I know it must be disappointing right now but you are making a good choice. In in the end you will still get your degree and you will be really happy for the 10 years after you graduate that you are not struggling with hundreds of dollars a month in loan payments.</p>
<p>There are some very good CCCs–see if yours has an honors program.</p>
<p>One thing to note–if you want to transfer to Berkeley’s COE, they recommend NOT completing the usual transfer requirements (IGETC) because they are looking for their transfer students to complete their fairly long list of technical/science classes. Yet UC Davis seems to like the IGETC path. And SLO will likely have its own slight variation. So at this point you need to pick your set of target schools, get the transfer requirements for the specific school AND major, and start comparing and contrasting. It can be tricky getting yourself ready to transfer to several different programs, but it can be done. You just need to carefully plan.</p>
<p>Please note that for all the good things about CCCs, many have terrible TERRIBLE counselors that give out poor and wrong information–so always ALWAYS go look for the information straight from the UC’s websites and published information and verify! The counselors are often in charge of several hundred students and simply do not know how to handle special cases or necessarily know first hand the difference between what Berkeley’s COE <em>really</em> wants to see vs Davis vs SLO. You need to be your own advocate at CCC.</p>
<p>Your experience with financial aid, your HS counselor, and your own parent’s lack of accurate assessment of the whole college realm should be an object lesson that you apply to your CCC and future transfer experience. YOU need to be the well-informed consumer. You literally need to know all the small details and plan it out because the counselors don’t get any better at CCC (and could be worse).</p>
<p>I agree with Annika. With a family EFC of zero, you are really putting the financial screws on your parents in having them take PLUS. Also, for you to start out taking so much in loans is ridiculous. Sometime, sometimes, sometimes, it COULD be worth it, depending on some rare situations. This does not look like one to me.</p>
<p>*Just a shame I didnt go over this with someone else earlier. *</p>
<p>I know that many kids don’t have parents or GCs that go over this stuff. But, if they had, would you have listened? Did your parents ever tell you to apply to any Cal States or did they never ask?</p>
<p>they didnt inquire about it all until after I finished applying to schools. now they are all mad that I didnt apply to any cal states.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>They need to be mad at themselves for not taking an interest in a timely manner.</p>