<p>Ok well let me start off with a hello!
I'm new here this is my first post. I'm in a semi-sticky situation. I'm a sophomore in Highschool and already thinking about certain colleges. I would truly love to attend UCLA. I have decent grades about 3.8 unweighted and in the top 10% student rank of my entire class. I would like to major in psychology to become a psychiatrist. Now here is catch, i'm from out-of-state. Actually, more of like way out of state. I'm about 4 hours away from New York. I honestly don't truly know the reason why i want to go to UCLA it mainly has to do with the weather and the reputation. The problem is that it costs so much out of state and with plane tickets about $600 a pop i wouldn;t be able to visit home often. I don't want to go because of the distance because i'm closely attached to my family. My family thinks I'm crazy for wanting to go,and I understand why they would think that.
I guess I have multiple questions.
Am I really that crazy for wanting to go?
Will I be completely broke?
Will i be able to survive?
What are my chances of getting in?</p>
<ol>
<li> O O;;</li>
<li> You won't be able to get that much financial aid, if at all, if you come here. The price tag for OOS is ~40K a year when everything is said and done (tuition+housing+fees+books), so it's roughly the price of a private school.</li>
<li> Once you get here, transitioning isn't going to be that tough. If you're talking about whether or not your grades will survive, if you had that standard of excellence in High School, you'll be competitive here.</li>
<li> Your UC GPA isn't complete yet, and you haven't taken the SAT. The UCs use only your sophomore and junior year grades to determine admissions, with a maximum of 4 AP/honors classes weighted with an "extra point" (ie. an A=5.0, B=4.0). If that UC GPA can get to be above a 4.0, preferably above 4.1, and your SAT can break 2000, there's a reasonable chance that even an OOS can get in.</li>
</ol>
<p>Will I be completely broke? Yes. Tuition is fierce. Apply for scholarships between now and then. Have an honest discussion with your parents about how much they will contribute.
Will i be able to survive? Yes.
What are my chances of getting in? It's quite early. Try your best and choose your colleges wisely senior year. </p>
<p>on a side note, you definately not going to get to go home too often, most people that live in norcal which isn't even that far only went home on thanksgiving and winter break... the out of states i knew didn't even bother going home thanksgiving... so if you are one of those people that want to go home every so often then its going to be tough</p>
<p>You will definitely not be able to go home very often, and I would give that some serious consideration. I'm from norcal, last quarter I went home at the end of 3rd week, thanksgiving, and winter. This quarter I went home at the end of 2nd week, and now I'm here until the end of the quarter.</p>
<p>I'm very close with my family as well, and this is by far the hardest part of being at UCLA.</p>
<p>since psychology is a hugely popular major offered at nearly every school, why not attend a more local school for your undergrad and save a place like UCLA for grad school?</p>
<p>UCLA does have an amazing psych program (i'm in it lol), but is it worth going so far from home for so long, for such a common major? i'm sure you can get an equally good undergrad psych experience closer to home. and no matter how wonderful UCLA is, if you're still attached to home, it's gonna hurt!</p>
<p>i'm from norcal as well. only kid, very close to my parents, and i only see them thanksgiving/xmas/spring break and one or two 3-day weekends. it takes me about 5 hours travel time each way, even though the flight is 1 hour. flying coast-to-coast is going to be harder, and subjected to far more severe weather conditions than we get out here (i'm sure you know that already!)</p>
<p>i traveled to the east coast for college visits and fell in love with carnegie mellon. now THEY have an awesome situation out there! as well as a very strong psych program and related fields. i would have loved to go there, but, it was the other side of the country! however, look into schools that are closer to you. </p>
<p>i think that saving UCLA for grad school, where you will be more specialized and receiving a more unique education at a time in your life where it's easier to leave home, is a better idea. but that's just my two cents :)</p>
<p>you're a psychology undergrad either way.
and i was implying the david geffen med school at UCLA for grad school. just didn't spell it out, emm ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, but a big part of the reason is I would like to go is to leave New England and to the west coast. I just don't know if I"ll be emotionally able too. But that's just my problem I guess.</p>
<p>You're a second-year and about 15 years old right now, right? By the time you leave for college, a lot will have changed (especially the summer preceding it). Just apply and hope things fall into place.</p>
<p>college visits are gonna be a huuuuge part of your decision.
make sure you spend the night at every west coast school to see how you like life here!
and keep in touch with yourself over the next few years. how much are you growing apart from your family? how much time do spend away from home and how does it make you feel? how often do you want to see your family, and how much do you want to start a new life? keeping a journal helps you see how you change over time, so you know what's important to you know, and what is important to you when it comes time for college.</p>
<p>I moved from New York to UCLA for my child Psychiatry Fellowship. I (and my future husband and then kids) ended up staying, much to our families dismay. I had no idea how travel back east was going to effect my life. (A much bigger deal then I anticipated).</p>
<p>Welcome to CC! S graduated from UCLA in 2005. Because we had alerted friends and relatives who lived in the area, he had a built-in support system. Yeah, there were disappointments like when he was supposed to go to a friend's house for Thanksgiving and the friend's mom had an emergency hospitalization. He ended up nuking food he bought from the supermarket b/c that was the year his aunt went away for the holiday.</p>
<p>He came home only twice a year - winter and summer. During the summer, he was home for only about a week or two because he was working out in LA. And we'd try to get out there to visit him at least once a year.</p>
<p>So, no, you're not crazy for going there - the weather is SO much better!</p>
<p>As for finances, both S and the S of a friend of ours from Colorado got residency halfway through, so their finances (they were responsible for paying their own expenses) didn't suffer all that much.</p>
<p>What are your chances? When S applied (Design|Media Arts), there were 600 apps for 55 spaces - pretty much a snowball's chance, but he got in. Give it your best shot - all they can say is no.</p>
<p>Hey I'm from upstate NY too! I'm a senior now, and for the longest time I too was dead set on going to UCLA. I visited when I was 13 and fell in love with the campus, location and general feel of being on the opposite side of the country. Granted I applied, and it's still one of my top schools, but it's not my top. As stated above, UCLA is probably more noted for its graduate programs - and I'm leaning towards that at this point. You will make a competitive candidate if you take a few APs, do well on your SATs and really excel at two or three ECs, but take a look at schools closer to you - McGill is AMAZING and is currently my top choice. A few good others are Georgia Tech and Carnegie Mellon if you want to stay close to home.</p>
What are your chances? When S applied (Design|Media Arts), there were 600 apps for 55 spaces - pretty much a snowball's chance, but he got in. Give it your best shot - all they can say is no.
[/quote]
Design|Media Arts is in the arts school - not in the Colleges of Letters and Sciences or even the Engineering School. If you're doing psychology, you're in CL&S and it's definitely not as competitive as DESMA (they're competitive in a lets look at your portfolio etc. type of way too).</p>
<p>Wow it's great to see a mother's perspective. As much as I would like to attend i would have to say my chances are extremely slim just like everyone else and plus the fact I haven't taken AP courses. The only chance i really have is an outstanding SAT score, a beastly admission essay, and my EC's but I still don't think that'll pull through. Oh well, I'm only a sophomore so we'll see it doesn't hurt to apply though.
If I were to make it miraculously, I would most likely need residency after a couple of years due to the cost. It's illicit, but everyone does it right?
Nothing wrong with a 16 year old with tremendous aspirations I hope</p>
<p>GO to Comm College in California for 2 years if money is really an issue. I have pretty good stats, story, and a very low family income and I'm still taking out 15k/yr in loans. Over 4 years that's 60k, but if you go to community college for 2 years, such as myself, you can cut it down to 30k for 4 years, which isn't all that bad. Plus you get to pad your gpa :)</p>