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Jeanne Winnick Brennan, an independent consultant who is married to a government lawyer, said she figured her daughter Katherine would go to UCLA when she was admitted last spring as a senior at St. Francis High School.</p>
<p>But as the family considered financial aid offers, a private nonprofit college caught their eye. Fordham University in New York offered Brennan's daughter a scholarship that reduced the total cost from $52,000 a year to $26,000 a year.</p>
<p>"That brought it down to parity with the UCs," Brennan said, because the family didn't qualify for any grants at the public schools.</p>
<p>When Brennan and her daughter visited the schools, she said, the decision became clear. Katherine would be in classes with hundreds of students at UCLA, while the average class size at Fordham is closer to 25.
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[High school senior Danielle] Arbios is applying to a few UC campuses but has reservations about them. She's nervous that UC tuition will keep going up, and she could wind up stuck there more than four years if she can't get the classes necessary to graduate. . . "[At private schools,] you know you're going to get the classes you want and you know you're going to be able to afford it, because they help you," said Arbios, 17.</p>
<p>"I feel like it's a better system than the public system right now."
<p>My younger S is at a private school. The cost for our family was less with the financial aid and merit scholarships than it would have been at the UC. (He didn’t apply for CSU’s.)</p>
<p>He gets his classes each semester and is on track to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>This was my younger son’s experience as well. A private college with good merit aid for DS2 is lower in cost than a UC would have been. However, it’s not lower than a CSU. What surprises me is that DS2 is currently having a great deal of difficulty getting the classes he wants in this private college. He’s a freshman, and every course but one that he wants to take next semester is already filled with upperclassmen.</p>
<p>In contrast, DS1 is a sophomore at a top CSU. While tuition has gone up, it’s a very small percentage of the cost of attendance. Now that he’s moved off campus, his total COA will be thousands of dollars less than the published amount. I consider it a bargain, especially when looking at starting and mid-career salaries for this CSU and doing a total ROI calculation. He’s never had a problem getting the classes he needs every quarter, including next quarter. He’s still on track to graduate in 4 years, despite having changed majors.</p>
<p>That’s awesome, vballmom! Glad to hear that he is on track, even after changing majors. </p>
<p>Interesting about the classes at the private. Like anything else, your mileage may vary. Is the major impacted? </p>
<p>Living off campus is often cheaper than dorm life, even when factoring in food and utilities. It’s great for students to have time in the dorm, but it definitely can be a budget buster!</p>
<p>It’s a liberal arts college, so students don’t declare majors until the end of their 2nd year (and my son doesn’t know what he wants to major in anyway). I don’t think he’ll have a problem graduating in 4 years, although he might have to double up on his major subject some semesters. I just didn’t expect that there would be a problem with getting into classes. It should be better next year as a sophomore.</p>
<p>DD1 is a junior at a very popular CSU. She will graduate on time, possibly with a minor, despite changing her major, twice. Yes, sometimes it can be difficult to get the popular Tu/Th 10 am class, but more than likely they will offer the same class M/W/F at 8 am and you will have no problem getting it. DS2 is a freshman at a popular UC. What the school says, which we have found to be true, is that you can make a big school small but you can’t make a small school big. So far, he has been able to get all the classes he needs.</p>
<p>D is at a private college across the country and the cost for her to attend is a bit less than a UC school. D is a musical theatre major and the only UC schools that offer this major are UCLA and UCI. </p>
<p>D is a freshman this year and received merit and talent scholarships that reduced the COA below a UC. She does not have any classes with more than 15 people in them and is set to graduate in 4 years with a minor also.</p>
<p>I went to a pricey private university cheaper than my brother at a public university (though we were in a different state). This isn’t a phenomenon unique to the UCs.</p>
<p>Even without merit aid, the well-endowed, highly selective privates offers generous need-based aid, which is so good that it is cheaper to go OOS than UC (at instate rates) for the vast majority of folks. Heck, HYP even gives aid/tuition discount to those making up to $180k/year.</p>
<p>What I always find amusing is when I talk to acquaintances who are taken aback when I say both my S’s go to private colleges. They get momentarily silent and then say something to the tune of “How can you afford it?” The make assumptions based on the private label, when it’s possible that my kids tuition bill is cheaper or nearly the same as their kids tuition bill.</p>
<p>A great resource for understanding how colleges allocate their tuition scholarships is MeritAid.com. If money is a concern, the best thing students can do is build a college list that includes a few schools that are a bit below their academic profile (GPA and test scores). Every school on that list should be a school that excites the student, so when those merit aid scholarship offers arrive, the student is open minded and eager to consider all options. </p>
<p>I recently attended a Cal State/UC admissions panel, and the biggest cause for concern was how long it’s taking students to graduate. At this point, students are lucky to finish in five years. </p>
<p>Private schools are well worth considering, despite their outrageous sticker price. Check out MeritAid.com and make sure that college list includes schools (public and private) that range in selectivity.</p>
<p>I’m surprised this is such big news. My D is also at a private in Boston for about the same we’d be paying at the University of Colorado, our state-u. Fact is, good students from the west are often enticed east (and elsewhere) for academic as well as regional diversity reasons. </p>
<p>To me a more interesting question is whether there will be a standards issue down the line for the UCs if some of the better CA students choose private schools for financial reasons – and more out-of-state students being admitted because they bring in the OOS tuition.</p>
<p>Quite a number of the UCLA (for an example UC) students, most of them in fact, have excellent SAT/ACT/GPA/ECs, etc. and may well find a private that offers enough merit aid to bring the cost to parity or even less than a UC including ‘free rides’. However, a lot of students prefer to attend UCLA (UCB, UCSD, etc.) over those privates. Some people want the small private and some prefer the large research U. Many don’t really care if an intro bio class has a couple hundred people in the lecture and some might even prefer it. Upper division courses aren’t usually hundreds of people in the course.</p>
<p>Unfortunately a lot of prospective students/parents think there’s a big issue in getting classes and possibly not graduating in 4 years when in fact that doesn’t seem to be true at most of the UCs and not in the experience my kids or their friends have had. In fact, since so many of the admits have a large number of AP credits, depending on the major (i.e. not engineering), many could graduate in 3 years fairly easily.</p>
<p>AP credits aren’t necessarily all they’re hyped up to be. You need to look on a college-by-college basis. </p>
<p>At UC Davis, for example, you cannot satisfy Gen Ed requirements with AP credits. You may get a one or two class head start in your major requirements by getting credit for AP calculus, history, or somesuch, but you won’t get a full year ahead overall. As far as I can tell, any AP credits unrelated to your major seem to end up kind of as extra baggage (except so far as the classes themselves helped you prepare for college).</p>
<p>It can be quite different at some other UC campuses, where they do allow AP credits to count towards your Gen Ed requirements.</p>
<p>^^ It tends to come down to the major and the major requirements and perhaps the particular UC. Some majors, perhaps poliSci, don’t take nearly as many major-specific courses to achieve as, for example, computer science. If there aren’t as many major-specific courses required then the AP credits may be more useful. They really didn’t help my AP laden CS/engineering major kids too much as far as eliminating courses (but I think they helped eliminate some) but I know some other majors can fairly readily be completed in 3 years given a fair number of AP credits and a full course schedule of at least 4 classes/qtr.</p>
<p>^^My son’s APs, although they don’t count for GEs, they did get him out of one of the writing classes, the constitution requirement and maybe a math class at UCLA, but the units (which don’t work against him as to the max number of units) gave him sophomore standing by 2nd quarter which meant a slightly earlier registration time. We have a friend who graduated from UCLA last year with a triple major (3 languages) in 3 years.</p>
<p>You can’t use AP credits for GE reqs at UCLA either, but the units certainly aren’t extra baggage. There are several college requirements that most people are able to skip, I was able to skip 2 quarters of calculus, and I’ve already reached senior standing as a 2nd year, so getting classes isn’t an issue (time conflicts aside).</p>
<p>I think the biggest hurdle to graduating in 4 years is picking your major. If you decide to switch to Engineering or make some other drastic change to your major in your second year or later, it often will be difficult to fit in the new requirements. And even if it is still possible to graduate on time, it seems that a lot of times people would prefer to take extra time rather than pack in 16-20 units every quarter. But if you make it a priority to be done in 4 years it really shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>My D applied to several privates and UCs; our dual (hard-earned ) income being above the cut-offs, she got only some merit aid offers, none from anywhere she really wanted to attend. She ended up choosing UCLA with sophomore standing due to APs, and no major problems getting the classes she wants. It was by far the cheapest of the options she seriously considered; for example, USC would have been twice as much. And she couldn’t be happier.
The final decision depends on your income, your kid’s ability to get aid or scholarships, and what works out best in the end. I am just so glad she doesn’t have to take out loans, which she would have had to do at USC, probably $100,000. That’s crazy for an undergrad degree.</p>
<p>I could not agree with you more. My DD got got lots of great offers and the best offer is from Northeastern with over 200K of free tuition and she still chose UCLA. She is new this year but is already a sophomore due to the AP credits.</p>
<p>So far, she is happy and has no problem with getting the classes she wanted. It is crowded in some classes but it doesn’t bother her. </p>
<p>It’s all up to the individual student and family situations…</p>