Our daughter has got admission to San Diego State as well as University of San Diego and we’re trying to decide… USD has offered a scholarship which brings down the tuition element by half and on par with SDSU, considering that she will be out of state at least for the first year. Her current leaning is towards USD given factors of campus, smaller class size and more but are we overlooking anything at SDSU which should pit it as a strong option vs USD…
Thanks,
Mahesh
she will be OOS for all four years, unless you are moving to California this summer. I’m on record for not paying OOS fees if a good private exists, so USD would be my vote.
OTOH, SDSU does have a strong psych program.
SDSU has the stronger program, but unless your whole family plans on moving TODAY to San Diego, your daughter will be paying full fees for all four years.
She will not be considered instate for SDSU because she is coming for educational purposes.
AND:
-Neither she nor you have paid California state taxes.
-She didn’t graduate from a California High school nor attend a California HS for three years. She will have an OOS HS transcript which is a big RED flag for the colleges.
-She has not independently worked, nor has self-supported receipts/expenses, without help from anyone, for a minimum of 366 days, and paid California and local taxes.
CALIFORNIA is one of the toughest states to gain instate residency status. Everyone wants to be a California resident because of the schools in the state. Paying for housing fees is astronomical.
You may want to consider USD because it is a private college so being instate won’t matter-the fees remain the same.
The residency issue having been clarified, the other thing you should consider is size of school (SDSU is a big public school with >30,000 undergrads, USD is a much smaller, private (Catholic) school with <6,000 undergrads).
For the same $$, I personally would go with USD. Paying OOS tuition for SDSU isn’t worth it, IMO.