<p>I have a 4.5 gpa, got a 33 on the ACT, and am heavily involved in the community. I want to go to a good college straight out of high school and major there such as berkeley or upenn, but my dad thinks its better to go to a good local (cheaper) college such as uci for 2 years first. I don't want to do that and he isn't convinced that going to the college of my choice out of high school is the better option. Can i have some points for argument on why going to say berkeley or upenn straight out of high school is better than going to uci for two years then going to berkeley.</p>
<p>I hear your dad saying he is concerned about costs.
What other schools are you considering? You may be able to get merit awards to bring your expense down.
I agree with you that in many cases it is preferable to attend the same school for 4 yrs.
However, that isn’t always the most affordable, and many, many students commute, &/or attend a community college to save money.
What is your EFC and what can your family contribute?</p>
<p>Off the top of my head</p>
<p>1) Depending on your major, the quality of the 4 year school and the quality of the CC the classes at the CC may not adequately prepare you for the 4 year school - you might be a disadvantage compare to your future classmates.</p>
<p>2) Many of the more selective 4 year schools are VERY hard to transfer into. It is hard to get in as a HS senior but even more difficult as a transfer.</p>
<p>3) Socialization will be more difficult as a transfer student.</p>
<p>4) Depending on the CC, many of the students will not be of the same mindset you are. You would be there working hard as a stepping stone for better. While for many of them they didn’t have the HS grades you had and they couldn’t get into a 4 year school. In this environment you might not be challenged as much as you’d like.</p>
<p>I take it uci isn’t UC Irvine? What state are you in? With your stats you have merit options, but not at the colleges you mention.</p>
<p>Going to the “college of your choice” may depend a LOT on family finances. UPenn gives only need based aid. Will your family qualify for that? </p>
<p>You are instate for CA. Can you commute to UCI? Are you planning to apply to other UCs or Cal States? </p>
<p>As an FYI, UPenn costs about $60,000 a year to attend…more than double the cost of UCI.</p>
<p>Need based aid is based largely on parent income and assets.</p>
<p>UC Irvine is not usually significantly cheaper than Berkeley unless you live close enough to commute to UC Irvine. Also, the cheaper way of doing the route your father suggests is to start at a community college; note that UCs and CSUs tend to favor transfers from the community colleges in admissions.</p>
<p>Have you run the net price calculators on the web sites of each school to get financial aid estimates?</p>
<p>For other low cost options, take a look at these lists:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-57.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-57.html</a> (if you have National Merit)</p>
<p>By going to one school all four years you can get to know professors better, start on research earlier and do it in more depth. Get to know your fellow classmates better. </p>
<p>All that said, it’s your father’s money to spend as he wishes, so your job is to find out what he can afford. (Which may not be the same as what colleges think he can afford.) Once you know what he’s willing to pay for you’ll have a better idea if a four year college can be in the plans or not. I don’t know why you’d go to UCI for only two years it’s a good four year university, and very strong in many majors.</p>
<p>What can your parents pay?
If you qualify for financial aid, then it would makes sense to attend the 4-year college right away.
If you need merit aid, you’d need to look elsewhere but must apply as a freshman since merit money is basically non existant for transfers.
If you live in CA, transferring UCI-> UCB is almost impossible - most transfers come from community college and with a 4.5 GPA/33 ACT it wouldn’t be the right place for you if your parents can afford UCI.
If your parents can afford UCI they should be able to afford UCB, and attending UCI for 2 years makes no sense (in addition, I really don’t think the UCI-> UCB path really “exists” outside of a handful people.)
You qualify for the automatic tuition scholarship at U Alabama BTW.
If you’re not going to commute to a community college for money reasons, it’d make more sense to attend the 4-year school right away; it’ll help you socially and educationally, and with the GPA/scores you have, you seem ready to take advantage of college.
However you should make sure you apply to a variety of schools, not just a few Top 10.
Include universities and LACs ranked in the top 20, top 45, and top 60, for instance. Start contacting all the schools so that none feels like a safety (ie, for schools that track “interest”, being an obvious safety school means they’ll turn you down to protect yield.)
Are you first-gen (neither parent has a 4-year degree?)</p>
<p>Are you a junior or senior?</p>
<p>If you are a junior you should look at the links posted by ucalumnus in post #6 about guaranteed scholarships for your stats. </p>
<p>If you are a senior, where have you applied? </p>
<p>It sounds as if your dad is concerned about costs. CC to a four year school can be a great way to cut costs. But, if you are able to earn a scholarship that could make four years at a school financially more feasible, this is certainly another very strong option.</p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing as ucbalumnus. UCI isn’t really cheaper than UCB, unless you’re planning to live at home and commute.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone…acknowledge your Dad’s concern for cost, try to find out how much he can afford, and apply to colleges that will have a net cost in that range.</p>
<p>Something to consider when thinking about transferring after a period of time to save money is that the merit scholarships that are there for incoming freshmen are usually not there as a transfer student. You may qualify for big scholarship as a freshman and then go to transfer and find little to nothing in the way of merit aid. You are only making a smart financial decision if you can afford to go full pay for the remaining years after the transfer.</p>
<p>For me, it made no difference because my grades were only good enough for merit aid to be a possibility as a transfer student. My sister, on the other hand, would have really benefited from this information and I wish I could beat some counselors over the head for always spouting, “you can always transfer! you can always transfer!” when transferring is a really good way to make sure you get zero aid if you could qualify for it otherwise.</p>
<p>IMO UCB is a FAR stronger school academically and socially than UCI. In fact, two of my former bosses, both UCI professors, felt that the difference was large enough to send their daughter to UCB rather than saving money by having her commute. </p>
<p>Assuming you live in commutable distance of UCI you likely have three strong CC options which will be vastly cheaper than a UC. If you go the CC route (not something I’d recommend to someone with your options), you’d easily be able to graduate in fewer than two years since you’d qualify for honors at Saddleback and possibly IVC (not sure if it gives top students priority registration). </p>
<p>How does your dad feel about UCLA?</p>
<p>We are assuming that the father’s motivation is primarily financial, rather than primarily to keep his child at home for a little while longer. That may be in play as well.</p>
<p>Others from California may correct me, but I thought it was fairly difficult to transfer from UC Irvine to Berkeley, precisely because of the preference given to community college transfers. I don’t think you can blithely choose to spend two years at Irvine then transfer to a stronger academic college.</p>
<p>It is extremely difficult to transfer from a middle tier UC to a top tiered one (easier the other way around).</p>
<p>UCI is also less than an hour and fifteen minutes from both UCLA and UCSD.</p>