<p>Well, high school students are limited to 6 units during fall/spring and to 3 during winter/summer. I’ll have to talk to my counselor regarding CC.</p>
<p>How many can I name? I just named one, how many more would you like? Incidentally, he started at a community college, too.</p>
<p>I am not knocking the community college route at all - I’m a California community college graduate myself. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that CSUs are bad schools. Plenty of Cal State grads end up in academia.</p>
<p>Your “top tier school” stuff is misplaced, too. Graduate school specialization means that general “rankings” are meaningless. None of the schools you named even have a program in my field, for example.</p>
<p>Do California CCs have articulation agreements with engineering schools so that students can be confident all their credits will transfer? </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>I calculate I eat at least $8,000 a year… I don’t know why my parents can’t help. Me being away at college, they won’t have to pay for my food, so there is $8,000 to spend on my education. Does it not work that way?</p>
<p>There is a CC that has that program with the UCs/CSUs, but I am not sure about Privates. Fortunately, the CC in my area is one of the best in California from what I heard.</p>
<p>I know you’ve already crossed out all the schools that meet full financial need, but I got into one with a 3.0 GPA and 34 ACT. It’s worth your time to apply, since you’ll be able to get fee waivers for basically all your application fees. I didn’t pay a single application fee when I applied to 8 schools, and I got rejected from 3 full need schools before I got accepted to Grinnell.</p>
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<p>If they’re California public engineering schools, yes. See [url=<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DASSIST%5B/url”>http://www.assist.org]ASSIST[/url</a>] for details.</p>
<p>*I calculate I eat at least $8,000 a year… I don’t know why my parents can’t help. Me being away at college, they won’t have to pay for my food, so there is $8,000 to spend on my education. Does it not work that way?
*</p>
<p>No, it really doesn’t work that way. Your parents, after spending 18 years paying for all of your expenses now have other spending and saving priorities that don’t include continuing to support you financially (pay for college, etc). </p>
<p>You need to leverage your advantages. One of them is that a smart student in CA can attend a CCC for dirt cheap, complete 60 units, and if they manage a high GPA, transfer into Berk or UCLA or the other UCs. </p>
<p>Btw, if you can complete “TAG” for UCLA, etc (Berk doesn’t use it), that’s grand. But if you have a high gpa and have the right set of pre-recs/IGETC (or whatever the particular UC wants, for example, Berk does not recommend IGETC for Engineering majors), the high gpa will work in almost every case.</p>
<p>OP – just because your mom says they can’t help pay for colleges doesn’t mean you have an EFC of zero. Their expected contribution is determined by the FAFSA formula for state schools – and if your parents don’t want to pay it, then you have to adjust your sights accordingly. </p>
<p>You need to use actual numbers from your parents and run them through an EFC calculator to see what the real financial deal is so that you can plan accordingly.</p>
<p>When I said EFC is 0, I used the EFC calculator from collegeboard and some schools’ webites, all came out as 0.</p>
<p>St Olaf is apparently full need, and they have a supercomputer on campus. Reed college has a nuclear reactor and meets full need. The hard part is getting my foot in the door. Case Western also has great financial aid and undergrad research opportunities from what I’ve read. Carnegie meets full need, but that is a very high reach, almost impossible for my major, but worth trying.</p>
<p>It Is Definately not true that going to a community college is your only feasible option simply because nobody is helping you pay. Many people attend universities with an EFC of 0 and pay it off with loans and federal/state/school grants. You may incur more debt by not attending a community college for the first year or two, but it’s definitely possible. Just be realistic and find a good, cheap school. A schools cost of attendance is in no way correlated with it’s prestige, so find one that suits your academic area of interest and isn’t too costly.</p>
<p>I calculate I eat at least $8,000 a year… I don’t know why my parents can’t help. Me being away at college, they won’t have to pay for my food, so there is $8,000 to spend on my education. Does it not work that way?</p>
<p>Are you sure that your parents are spending THAT much on ONE person in the family for food? If there are 3 people in the family, that would be about $24k per year…that’s a ridiculous amount for any family, much less a 0 EFC family. Even if your parents were spending $8k on YOU and $8k on 2 parents, that’s still $16k per year which is a lot for a 0 EFC family. When cooking for a family, it is cheaper “per person” than trying to cook for just one.</p>
<p>If you can get away without a meal plan, you should be able to eat for about $50 per week.</p>
<p>How are you figuring that amount? </p>
<p>Were you getting free breakfast/lunch at school? </p>
<p>Did your parents qualify for food stamps?</p>
<p>I mis-calculated… It would be closer to $3,000 a year</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>How are you calculating?</p>
<p>And do/did you get free lunch/breakfast at school?</p>
<p>How much do your parents spend each year on food total for the entire family? </p>
<p>What is your family size?</p>
<p>A friend and I roomed together for a year at a school while our families stayed in the DC area. We lived on $200/month for both of us, and that included hard goods like dish detergent, laundry soap, etc. It is hard to believe one person eats more than both of us did.</p>
<p>Well, technically I might be eligible for a reduced price lunch, but never took that deal since the lunch is cheap as is. But I go out and eat with my friends at $5 a day. So $5*5 = $25 per week at lunch. Around 26 weeks of school a year = 650. So I guess that is more like $2k. Yea I over estimated by a lot.</p>