because i am a u.s. citizen they should offer me full financial aid. i am still appealing my financial aid there currently (they gave me my FA package already) but I can definitively say that my financial aid at oxy is the best value of any school I have gotten accepted to so far.
My only other option of a similar caliber would be CC/transfer or gap year and then attend one of my UCs (I am currently not a resident so it is unaffordable if I attend straight away), which is just a lot more complicated and time consuming for not a lot more reward.
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Got it, that makes sense. In the original post I misunderstood that their package was only 10k a year.
How can you be waitlisted at USC? Do you mean you were accepted as a spring admit? You have great options, much better, imo, of others I have seen with equally amazing stats who seem to be shut out.
Is Oxy affordable with the current FA Package? What are your reasons for appeal?
There is no requirement to indicate oneâs ethnicity on a college application.
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The main reasons why: ORM status + high need. This is an unfortunate situation. Colleges have an overabundance of ORMs, and so can easily take full pay students.
But you have a lot to be proud of. I know youâll do amazing things.
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I disagree - the UCs donât look at ethnicity.
Tufts is 1/7 Asian. NEU 11%.
Tufts is need aware and since 35% are getting need- that could be.
Thereâs many factors at play most likely but we donât know what they are.
These are all great acceptances.
Regarding reach schoolsâŠthey are called this because they are hard to gain admissionâŠvery competitive with tons of very highly qualified applicants.
Your kiddo has done very well! His list of acceptances is something to celebrate. Please put the schools that didnât accept him totally out of your mind. They really donât matter. He had great choice.
Your whole family will need to move to CA, and prove they are establishing permanent residency thereâŠfor you even to be considered for instate tuition status. And with that, the whole family will need to reside there at least a full year before instate tuition can be an option.
Please, donât assume it will be easy for you to establish instate residency just because you come to CA and attend community college there. This wonât help.
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So your list is way off base - know why - you applied to UCs, you arenât a resident of CA so you could never afford them. I was just reading @ThumperSD note - and realized this.
If you need to go for cheap, and you got into a UC - if you didnât take a test, U of Arizona will be inexpensive if you have a 3.9 UW or more. You say 3.93. At your GPA, should be $8K + room and board - so 20-ish, maybe a tad higher.
Alabama will be $3K + room and board - so $16ish.
And you can apply to both.
Not sure why you applied to schools you canât go to even if you got in - i.e. the UCs.
Apply to reaches is useless unles syou can afford.
But Oxy will meet need for US students - so if you have need (as they determine), you will have that need met there.
You should be ecstatic at that acceptance.
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From the way the OP phrased the FinAid situation with Oxy, I assume there is a difference between what the OP and Oxy calculates the familyâs FinNeed to be. I wonder if there is business income or something similar?
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and of course - often times what families say they can afford and a school say are different - and the family would wisely not want to wreck themselves financially. Schools expect you to spend or as Cornell told me - to invest in your children and I understand that.
Unfortunately another example of applying to schools they never should have - i.e. the UCs.
Parents/kids - please check your budgets first and foremost. It makes no sense to chase a name when you canât pay for that name (i.e UCs).
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I am thinking that another factor may be the combination of need + international school. I know the OP is a US citizen, but her circumstances may run against the grain of how most colleges operateânamely that international students are full pay. When rapidly reading through thousands of applications, are admissions officers realistically going to reset their mindset in a case like this?
The population of low-income US citizens living abroad seeking admission to competitive schools is probably pretty small, and is probably an underrepresented group that hasnât gotten any special attention.
As others have said, there are any number of reasons that students can be rejected from the highly rejective schools. The OP should not internalize the âmeritâ mindset that puts all accomplishments on a linear scale and believe that everything is objectively evaluated. She can take pride in her accomplishments, go to the excellent school she has been accepted at, and build a great future from that. In reality, her very distinctive experiences will prepare her much better for that future than those who have been groomed by others into a perfectly polished Ivy acceptance.
This student is a U.S. citizen. Her aid would be calculated as a U.S. citizen, not an international student.
And admissions would be as a citizen, although the application for admission could have been reviewed in the pool of those applying from the region in which she residesâŠwhich could have had a large number if very highly qualified applicants.
But this kid is NOT an international student. This kid is a U.S. citizen.
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I meant to emphasize that she attended an international school. Obviously this is down to any one universityâs admissions processes, but one can easily imagine, as you allude to, that their app was reviewed alongside hundreds of others from SE Asia, by reviewers with the expectation that SE Asia would be a revenue-generating group without a lot of financial aid set aside.
My point is that it may be unrealistic to expect that an extensive, detailed, fair, and balanced review of this studentâs circumstances would occur just because she is a US citizen. In particular, for schools towards the HYPS end of the spectrum, they are schools of the world with more interest in supporting their own prestige than those of any one nation.
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Because you are a US citizen, you are eligible to submit an application for Federal Aid (via FAFSA) which is not going to be what you would consider âfull financial aidâ to pay full fees.
As a US citizen, with a low income budget, you probably qualify for a Federal Pell Grant and a Federal loan.
- A Federal Pell Grant is currently maxed out at $6495 for the year.
- A Federal loan is $5500 for the year.
^^This is your âfull financial aidâ and is still dependent on your income.
You are currently not a resident in any state, so you donât qualify for any taxpayer-supported State Grants and Scholarships.
Any other funding would have to come from the universities themselves and your parents.
Are your parents are willing to pay $65K a year to attend a UC?
As previously mentioned, attending a California Community College and transferring to a UC/CSU does not meet the residency test. Before even considering attending a UC, you would have to work full time, for a calendar year, without going to a public California school (Uni or CC). You would have to support yourself, without help from family or friends, pay market rates, keep accurate documentation, file California (expensive) and Federal taxes, and do this for a minimum of 366 days.
Or, the entire family would have to do this:
Your family would have to move and attain a residence, stay in that residence for 366 days, pay California State taxes on full-time jobs, meet state document requirements, and meet intention to remain in California proof and pay Federal taxes.
ETA: you were rejected because there are too many students applying to those top schools and not enough seats and the real reason, you need full aid. They donât have the dollars to fund everyone who needs aid, so they prioritize the students who can pay the cash.
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Some of these colleges are need blind for admissions for U.S. citizensâŠso ability to pay shouldnât have been a consideration at those.
BUT the reality isâŠany college with less than a 20% acceptance rate just isnât a sure thing. These schools are looking to fill a class of studentsâŠyou will never know why you werenât accepted. There were TONS of other well qualified applicants who also were not accepted.
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Yep, agree!
I donât know why every student assumes that getting into a reach is a guarantee.
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Yep, they are reaches for a reason!!! And she did get into UCSD which is a reach!!
She just shouldnât have applied because she canât afford it.
No reason to worry about why you didnât get in. Focus on the ones you got into.
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But the OP did not get the super-reach of sufficient scholarship there, so it counts as a rejection because it is unaffordable.
Unfortunately, it is quite possible that the OP got (financially) shut out, if the Occidental financial aid does not get improved.
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