Sad Article About OOS Student at UCSC

Paying for College
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<p>NOTE: In an interest to protect a student's privacy, I am not currently linking to the article as it reveals a lot of personal information about the student including class standing, full name, residential college affiliation, home town, and major. I will be quoting the relevant portions, though. The article is easy enough to find on google.</p>

<p>I was reading the latest City on Hill (UCSC student produced campus newspaper) today while waiting for the bus and ran across this article. Most of the important pieces quoted below:

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[name redacted] isn’t going to let a lack of money stop her from following her dream, but says it would be nice if the California educational system didn’t hamper her every move. An out-of-state student from [Florida], [name redacted] is struggling to cope with the UC’s dire financial situation.

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A mid-year increase of $585 in 2010 and an increase of $1,334 for the 2010-2011 academic school year has brought the overall average cost of attendance to $53,580 for out-of-state students.

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“I didn’t really expect [these difficulties]. I thought I would get more loans, and I’ve applied for a ton of work study jobs,”

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In an effort to lighten the burden on her family, [name redacted] is applying for California residency status. However, the process is long and [name redacted] has a long way to go.</p>

<p>“I just got my new [driver’s] license,” [name redacted] said. “I have to have it for a year to qualify.”</p>

<p>Regardless of the difficulties, [name redacted] is determined to stay.

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<p>The following quote (particularly the bolded part) is what horrified me the most:

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“My parents do struggle with tuition — they always put me first. They’re really selfless, which stresses me out, especially since I can’t get a job,” [name redacted] said. “My mom doesn’t work, and my dad works but doesn’t always get paid on time. He sometimes pays my tuition instead of the rent for that month, and so I feel really bad. There’s a lot of stress on us as a family.”

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The student is a Florida resident who is struggling to pay the on par with private school costs charged by the UCs to OOS students. She is allowing her family to risk their place of residence (and possibly credit and renter references?) by continuing at a school that is obviously too expensive. It seems like no one in her family did any research into the real costs and what promises (or lack there of) existed and only went with "following a dream." Worse, it seems like there continues to be a lack of research based on the commentary regarding the student's attempt to gain residency.</p>

<p>I feel awful that while the tone of the article is implying one should be sympathetic with the plight of this OOS student, I feel nothing. There is no promise to meet need. There is no promise to keep tuition, fees, and housing the same for all four years. I have no sympathy for this student beyond the fact she was obviously ill-advised (and continuing to be ill-advised). The fact this school is too expensive for her family is slapping her in the face yet she continues to allow the burden to exist.</p>

<p>I'm shocked that no one at CoH did any research to show the student that her attempt to gain residency will not work to gain her in-state tuition. I would like to think they'd be more professional than that since they seem like they honestly want to help her. The least they could have done is point to the real ways to gain residency for tuition purposes (which are far more difficult than just living in California for a year). Only thing I can figure for motivation is CoH is using this student's plight to push the plight of the entire student body. It's never been a secret that the UC system desires OOS students because of the tuition they pay.</p>

<p>While there are no details about what loans the family might be taking (although one can read between the lines that loans have been exhausted) and what aid might have been qualified, I did find this to be a good cautionary tale about the cost of UCs since there seems to have been a large handful of them over the past month. This student's family is extending themselves beyond their means to fund a very expensive education. I can only see bad things coming if her father continues to skip rent payments.</p>

<p>I sincerely do hope things work out somehow for this student and her parents' lives aren't completely ripped to shreds financially over this. I can respect the thought her parents are having, but it is incredibly irresponsible what they are doing.</p>

<p>The dream is not always so pretty :(</p>

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<p>Ouch…sounds like a nightmare. This is referring to UC Santa Cruz, right? I don’t understand, it’s not even a prestigious school at all. Why would someone OOS even apply there? She would have been better off going to U Miami…</p>

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<p>Yes, UC Santa Cruz. UCSC has contracts with NASA to do research and is responsible for the Human Genome Project just to name a couple of the accomplishments it has had in recent years. If you want to go by a list of the opinions of someone else, UCSC is still considered among the top 100 schools in the nation and is thus a Tier 1 school. It’s nothing to sneeze at.</p>

<p>However, the point of this thread was to draw attention to yet another case of a student causing great financial hardship for themselves and their family because of an unaffordable school and not about the merits of that school. Please respect that.</p>

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<p>The only “sad” part of this article is that the student apparently thought that somehow the state of CA was going to help HER as a resident of Florida. CA’s first mission is to help the students who are residents of that state and whose PARENTS are tax paying residents of that state.</p>

<p>This article reads to me like the student made a financially POOR decision…and now hopes someone else will rectify it.</p>

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<p>No true. UMiami is private. She would have paid $55K. However, there are plenty of state universities in Florida where she could have attended and paid less than $20K.</p>

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<p>I 100% agree, thumper, and that’s precisely what I meant by “sad” :). I in no way feel sorry that she is not getting any help paying for college from the state or that fees and tuition are being raised on her. The other word I was thinking of I felt was a bit too harsh, though, but probably would have better described my opinion.</p>

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<p>If her parents have problems paying the rent because he doesn’t always get his paycheck on time - it sounds like they have very little to lose by loading up the truck and driving to the desert. Once parents are CA residents, she gets in-state tuition. They can have trouble paying the rent and not get their pay checks anywhere.</p>

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<p>A co-worker’s daughter applied to the flagship of our university system, two schools in a neighboring state (reciprocal tuition agreement), and several other OOS public schools. This past week she said that her daughter has her heart set on a non-reciprocating OOS school. The mom is in high dudgeon (she is a high dudgeon kind of person) that OOS tuition is three times instate and that there is no reciprocity with the state although there is a shared border. She apparently called to complain because she said she was told tuition is set by the board of regents and reciprocity is a legislative matter. I am not going to ask, but I am curious if the daughter will decide on this school or the financially more reasonable OOS with the reciprocity agreement.</p>

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I cannot agree with this more.</p>

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<p>I don’t like seeing parents operate under the premise that their child’s (silly) dreams come first…even before paying the rent.</p>

<p>This attitude is not healthy.</p>

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<p>I think a lot of parents tell their kids throughout high school that if they work hard and do well they can go anywhere. And then in the spring of senior year the parents suddenly realize that what they have been saying is wrong. Rather than turn around and disappoint their kids they desperately try to make things work that just won’t.</p>

<p>IMHO financial aid education should begin in middle school or freshman year at the latest, and should include the kids as well as the parents. My own high performing school district does have fin aid workshops, but they are for the parents of high school seniors, mid way through the school year – way too late!</p>

<p>And this nonsense about not discussing the family’s finances with the kids is ridiculous… why not let them know how much money is coming in and where it all goes? [/rant]</p>

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<p>Instate total cost of attendance at University of Florida is 18K.
OOS at UCSC is 53K. Instate at UCSC is 30K, so she would still be better off in Florida.
The differential over four years is at least 140K in the current scenario, in a family that struggles to pay the rent. I agree that the sad part is that the family did not make a better choice.</p>

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<p>This couldn’t get one ounce of sympathy out of me. Even if the school was Harvard, it is irrelevant. Waste of ink.</p>

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<p>This article is one the biggest reasons that I have been one of the few voices on cc to urge OOS’ers to “just say No” to UC.</p>

<p>Of course, reading the excerpts that were posted, it is obvious that the (clueless) ‘journalist’ is taking the sympathetic position – the UC should educate anyone and everyone for (near) free.</p>

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<p>So quite so easy. Generally, they’d have to live instate for 12 months… Otherwise, an appeal could go either way. The more selective campuses would probably deny; UCSC would might accept, however.</p>

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<p>No sympathy from me either. If times are that tight for the family, then you go to a state school in Florida or even a comm college. You don’t trek across the country to California and expect not to be hit with huge OOS costs and not a lot of aid. Why should California particularly aid OOS students, anyway?</p>

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<p>I am sympathetic to a family who drank too much of the college fever kool aid. I certainly do not expect UCSC and the state of CA to pay for the student’s way unless they made that commitment when accepting her as a student. The problem is not the $2k increase in cost; it’s the private school range cost for an OOS to go to a UC.</p>

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<p>But I gotta be honest here. UCSC? I can understand being swayed by OOS for UCLA and / or Berkeley, but what is UCSC going to bring to the party outside the state of California?</p>

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<p>The UCs are excellent schools. Look at their rankings on a number of systems. UCSC also has a definite “climate” as well as excellent programs. Some folks want to go to California and going the UC route is comparable cost to the privates. But I agree that a student from Florida who probably could get Bright Futures and even without it a low COA from those state schools is being fiscally irresponsible going to a UC.</p>

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<p>UC Santa Cruz is top ten in Astro, ahead of Harvard and MIT, according to NRC. It has close ties to Silicon Valley for those so inclined.</p>

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<p>UF has a very good physics program too.</p>

<p>Bottom line: UCSC simply is not enough better than UF/FSU/UCF (depending on field) to be worth OOS UC fees. I’m not trying to insult UCSC - it’s a fine school - but this student had in-state options that are also very good. And this student and her family were crazy to think that this would all work out financially.</p>