<p>My little sister will be applying to colleges this fall. I'm trying to convince her to apply to Cal. She goes to a competitive high school in Maryland and has better stats than me across the board...near perfect GPA and SAT's, several leadership positions in respectable clubs, all state musician </p>
<p>(my best extracurricular in high school was probably my band with three colleagues.......................thank goodness I was not her only role model lol)</p>
<p>...so I think she has a very good chance. I did the first part of my undergrad at Cal and remember fee hikes and budget cuts going on around the time I transferred...she is concerned that this problem has not gotten any better and has had a negative impact on aid for OOS students. Can anyone, preferably OOS students who applied for aid and were admitted in more recent semesters, attest to their level of satisfaction with the aid they received from Cal?</p>
<p>ALso, if any respondents have more than one semester’s worth of experience, it would be awesome if they could mention if the changes in OOS aid from one semester to the next have been minimal, drastic in a negative way, or even positive.</p>
<p>P.S. Both my older siblings did undergrad in Maryland, while I knew I did not want to go in-state for undergrad and applied mainly to California schools and a couple schools in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts…older siblings have been saying since my high school years that my two younger siblings would in no way follow my lead and for sure be going to an in-state school. Both younger siblings (one year apart) are extremely interested in California schools at the moment. So “aHa!” to my older ones now that I am asking this question. And “you’re welcome” to Cali :)</p>
<p>There is no institutional aid available to cover the OOS supplement, so unless your family can afford your EFC plus the $23,000 supplement, then Cal is unlikely to be affordable.</p>
<p>I almost forgot about the OOS supplement not being covered by institutional aid…I remember writing a ton of scholarship application essays to cover part of it. Guess the sibling might be doing the same or end up going to a Cali private…Pomona seemed to be her top choice so hopefully this news is not too disappointing for her.</p>