<p>My advice is to get out of California. You qualify for the WUE program: [Western</a> Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) | Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.wiche.edu/wue]Western”>Save On College Tuition | Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE))</p>
<p>Or get a merit scholarship. Not everyone can do that, but on an individual level you just need to be better than most other people.</p>
<p>I think that instead of mentioning what low income get, it might be better to focus on the real issue here. </p>
<p>All of us here know that low income kids aren’t getting free rides unless they’re the lucky few admitted to those certain schools.</p>
<p>Diana’s situation is one that many middle class people face…especially in Calif where merit is iffy and FA at the publics is awful for the middle class. The UCs (not the CSUs) do give aid to those who earn up to $80k (B&G promise). The CSUs don’t have that promise, but Cal Grants are there for the low income as well as Pell and maybe SEOG. </p>
<p>That’s why I mentioned in another thread that the Calif families earning $81k+ are paying taxes so that those who make less than $80k can get about $14k in UC aid. It is very frustrating for those $81kish families that they can barely afford to have their children commute to a UC (because just tuition and books is about $15k), while the family that makes a bit less than they do (say $78k) is being handed $14k in free money each year. </p>
<p>Imagine that. A family of 3 (2 parents, 1 child) earning $78k gets $14k each year in free money…BUT…the family of 5 (2 parents, 3 children) earning $81k gets NOTHING??? No one can argue that the family of 3 really has less money to put towards college than a family of 5. Who’d argue that? And what about the household with ONE parent and ONE child that earns $79k??? Why does that kid deserve $14k in free money but the family with 2 adults and 2 kids earning $82k gets nothing? </p>
<p>The fact that the UCs don’t use EFC to determine B&G eligibiity is just stupid. </p>
<p>this really isn’t an issue about low income kids. They get what they get and thank goodness. </p>
<p>The issue is that the Calif UCs have a stupid system …and income threshold is meaningless when it doesn’t take into acct family size or number of kids in college.</p>
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<p>The OP doesn’t. You have NO idea how prevalent that myth is.</p>
<p>M2CK, I’m not disagreeing with you. It’s a dumb system to be all-or-nothing and not take into account family size and such. However, “whining” about what poor kids get (ha!) isn’t doing anything but make the OP bitter and drives away many people who would actually like to help her.</p>
<p>OP, I apologize for my initial sarcastic comment, but with your stats, I would consider taking a gap year and applying for several 100% need met school. Some of the better LACs in the east for example, are looking for kids from CA. You would be a match for Haverford, Colgate or one of the seven sister’s. These are just examples of possibilities but I believe there are many more.</p>
<p>The real problem is the OP thinks they deserve a costly education, and that is ridiculous…you are NOT entitled to a college education, fortunately you CAN afford to attend college,though likely not one you are willng to consider, YET…</p>
<p>diana3 We’re in the exact situation. Wife and I are gov employees make similar amount to your parents. But after health care, pension, retirement, property tax, mortgage, food, utilities. Not very much saved. Our EFC on most calculators is in the 20-25k range. m2k has been invaluable. I’d ignore lots of the other peoples post. To some earning $80k anywhere else in the US is a fortune. But in CA everything is expensive. In SF a commuter pass for the bus is in the 70-80 range per month. A childs is 30. They do not offer school bus it got cut with the budget. Sales tax is 9% and property tax is in the 1.1% range. Gas is always $0.30 cents more here. Everything is expensive in CA. Avg cost 1 year at UC is between $28-32k. I truly sympathize!</p>
<p>@romani…</p>
<p>I think she knows now. :)</p>
<p>Anyway, it wouldn’t be hard for Calif to determine a formula that is more fair. Perhaps using FAFSA and maybe even requiring NCP info for instances when the NCP has always been in the child’s life…especially for those popular “shared custody” scenarios in Calif where magically the family chooses the low income parent to report as custodial at FA time. :(</p>
<p>If the UCs want to be fair, then charge a sliding scale…lol. Obviously a max price would need to exist, but if a family has a 0 EFC, then provide all grants except for student loans, work study, and maybe some summer work contribution…and then go from there depending on EFC up to COA. </p>
<p>The family with the $12k EFC should get about $10k in grants. And the balance should be student loans, small summer work contribution, and WS. </p>
<p>What’s especially trying for those “in betweeners” (income too high for B&G but too low to pay $30k+ COA) is that the UCs keep raising the system-wide fees in order to fund the B-G promise. This has caused UC fees to go from $8k per year to about $14k per year in a very short time. Imagine the $85k family that had determined a few years ago that they could pull together the money for fees/tuition and the balance for room and board with a combo of laons and family funds and now they’re expected to pay $30k+ COA just a few years later?</p>
<p>mom2college kids is right about CA system a bit screwy. You pass thresholds instead of scaling. For example if I had made $800 less this year I would have picked up another $3,000 in Cal grant C grant money for my kids. Another 1,600 in Pell grants. So the $800 was costly.
That being said I will not complain. My twins are going to get a first rate education. D1 will end up with about 20-25k debt at the end at UCSB. S1 will finish USC probably debt free due to merit aid and cal grant monies.
I concider myself low middle class and thank goodness I live somewhere where I can send my kids to a first rate college and they have an opportunity to do better than me job wise and opportunity wise.</p>
<p>A lot of things in life are not fair. The “going away to college” experience is the least of it, believe me. </p>
<p>Only in this country, has “sleep away camp” become the thing to do for 18-24 year olds. It’s become so prevalent that young adults of that age are classified as dependents to support this industry.</p>
<p>The way I look at it is that every student graduating high school should have the opportunity to continue education. Those who come from families whose income are very low, get PELL from the federal government that can bundled with any state plan. Middle class families have Stafford loans their kids can borrow without a credit check or history. Kids who have something particular private colleges want, can get money from them. Otherwise, like everything and anything else, parents have to pay. You want to go away to school why should tax payers have to feed you and pay your rent? The only exception I see that makes sense is if there is no college within commutable distance.</p>
<p>This has been a rant of mine for a while.</p>
<p>I have so many kids, sick relatives, all kinds of problems that really had a higher priority than the dream college experience for my college aged kids. So we put in a limit of what we could afford, and my kids had to come up with the rest. My current college freshman worked during the summers, sometimes as many as three jobs, had a job some years during the school year as well, and saved, saved, saved. Saved birthday, CHristmas and graduation money. When he got his college acceptances, he had some great choices. The ones we could not afford went off the table immediately. He could stay at home for free and still get a private college experience or go for very little at a CUNY/SUNY. He could commute to a 'name" university and it would clean him out and some. Then there were the state schools that were affordable and some privates with merit money and OOS that had low sticker prices. It all came down to what was affordable.</p>
<p>I don’t know the particulars of the California college system. On paper, anyways, it’s a terrific set up. I think the SUNYs here wanted to model it and have been no where as successful in getting such a prestigious system in place… </p>
<p>So waht do you do. You go to a local state school. Community college and commute. Work part time. Borrow the Stafford maximum and bank it. Save what you can. Pay the interest on those loans. Come junior year, transfer to a 4 year state school you’ll be able to borrow $7500 a year which you can add to the Staffords and savings you have stashed away. That and a bit more that your parents can borrow can get you your degree with 2 years of the sleep away experience, some debt for you and parent, but not a crushing amount. It can be done.</p>
<p>You complain about CA’s aid…you can’t even compare it to DC. And FYI, cost of living in DC is more than CA, so those poor folks that gets into selective schools deserve the full-ride. In-state options: UDC!!</p>
<p>Cptofthehouse,</p>
<p>Great advise.</p>
<p>I disagree however, that CA has a great setup. It is great for those whose parents are making under 80k. The setup is provided at expense of everybody else - including full pay students who pay for this setup through increase of fees. Were it not for these generous grant programs, the education would be more affordable to many more students. </p>
<p>While your post is great, it should be geared to ALL Students, including low income ones.</p>
<p>cpt–</p>
<p>I know that certain things are unfair, but we cannot just say “life is unfair” at everything and move on, especially when situations can be fixed. “Life is unfair” is what people said to prevent the civil rights movement. Why isn’t there a sliding scale as mom2collegekids proposes? Why is it that a family that earns 79k gets 13k while a family that earns 81k gets 0?</p>
<p>This is subjective, but going to a CSU Los Angeles won’t provide a graduate with as many opportunities as graduating from UCLA. Job prospective is important in this economy.</p>
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<p>Just to put this in perspective- at MOST public schools in almost every other state, a 79k income family is getting squat in terms of financial aid. You might feel slighted, but CA is very generous in terms of FA.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Right. In many states, publics don’t give any free grants except Pell…lol</p>
<p>However, Calif UCs do have a screwy aid system. </p>
<p>What’s weird is that Calif has public univs sprinkled quite nicely across the state. Most can commute to a UC or CSU in their area. If not, there could be an arrangement where the student starts at a CC and then gets better aid for the last 2 years when he must be a residential student. </p>
<p>One could argue that the the quality isn’t’ the same at every school. Well the quality of the K-12 schools aren’t the same either. </p>
<p>BUT…I do think that the goal SHOULD be to get all the UCs and the CSUs “up to snuff” so that all of them are desirable schools. UCLA and Cal will always be top dogs, but going to UCMerced shouldn’t feel like getting the booby prize. </p>
<p>For YEARS, many kids commuted to their local CC, CSU, or UC. Yes, some kids dormed, but not like it is today.</p>
<p>To the OP I <em>hear</em> you!</p>
<p>It’s not just CA. Indiana has the 21st Century Scholars Program:</p>
<p>-To enroll, a student must be a member of a household with an annual income of not more than the amount required for the student to qualify for [federal] free or reduced price lunches, as determined by the immediately preceding tax year for the household. </p>
<p>Indiana started the Twenty-first Century Scholars in 1990 to ensure that every student can afford a college education. Income-eligible 7th and 8th graders who enroll in the program and fulfill a pledge of good citizenship are guaranteed to receive up to four years of undergraduate tuition* at any participating public college or university in Indiana. </p>
<p>If you attend a private or an independent institution, the state will award an amount comparable to that of a public institution. If you attend a participating proprietary (private career) school, the state will award a tuition scholarship equal to that of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana.</p>
<p>So low income students that stay in state are guaranteed full tuition scholarships.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I’m a single parent. I have a moderate income, by no means high. I make approximately 60K per year. My EFC is around $10K per year.</p>
<p>Too high for a pell grant, too high for state aid…</p>
<p>2 colleges my son with excellent stats applied to offered significant aid in a combination of merit money and need based aid, but still expected $30,000 per year after awards.</p>
<p>Our in-state public that offers full tutition awards to low income students, offered us a ‘generous’ $2K, leaving us $18K per year to pay.</p>
<p>Fortunately my son qualifies for a full tution merit scholarship from 'Bama which gives us an option, but I can’t imagine being in my shoes with a students who is not as high an achiever. How does it help to aid the low income students, if we’re turing those middle income students into next generations low income population???</p>
<p>Sure they have the choice of not going to school, but won’t flipping burgers put them in the same income category as $100K in debt by age 22???</p>
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Neither are we.</p>
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So do the rest of us. How are they any different? </p>
<p>I’m sorry you are finding it difficult to figure out how to fund an education, but being jealous of people who are less well off then yourself isn’t going to help you. Given the circumstances in which you find yourself, what can you do? - that’s where you need to be focusing now.</p>
<p>
One of my cousins had only one D (out of wedlock). They lived with her sick brother in the brother’s house, squirreled money in a mattress for years (having no housing expense), and then she “retired” while the D was in hs. The D is now on a full ride at a very prestigious school, cuz is living on the mattress money, and figures on going back to work once the D graduates.</p>
<p>I am a student admitted to UC Davis with the Blue and Gold Plan with an income ~70,000. While this helped pay my systemwide fees I also received a Davis scholarship that reduced my costs. After that my parents will pay ~8000 and I will take 5,500 in loans. This is fairly affordable but my sister is also in school at a private school. This is only financially possible because I was awarded scholarships, even though I did not get Regents (I had a 35 ACT and 4.2 UC GPA) I was also admitted to some top private schools and LAC’s that are offering need-based aid that makes them more affordable than Davis! Take a gap year and apply to some top schools with great FA and see if you can get in and get a good deal! Good luck!</p>
<p>One of my cousins had only one D (out of wedlock). They lived with her sick brother in the brother’s house, squirreled money in a mattress for years (having no housing expense), and then she “retired” while the D was in hs. The D is now on a full ride at a very prestigious school, cuz is living on the mattress money, and figures on going back to work once the D graduates.</p>
<p>Obviously, that is a very rare situation.</p>
<p>Jrcsmom’s situation is far more common. Too “rich” (ha ha) for much/any need based aid, but in reality, not having the money or assets to pay. Anyway…Bama will be certainly glad to get her child. :)</p>
<p>Sylvan…good heavens. It’s not fair for you to imply that you’re in the same situation with your, “We can’t afford our EFC either.” You may not have a rich person’s income, but you have significant assets (rental properties) which along with earned income provide a strong overall income and financial picture. You don’t want to sell them…but you COULD if needed. A kid with a $12k EFC has a totally different situation.</p>
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<p>Well, it is expensive to live in CA.</p>