UC Berkeley.. UCLA

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>Hello,
I am a high school junior in southern texas, and I am planning on attending Rice University, BUT I saw how expensive it is to attend such a school...
Are UC Berkeley and UCLA just as expensive?.. more?.. less?... Being out of state, would I HAVE to pay A LOT more?... On a scale from 1-10, is it very difficult to get accepted to these schools?... Thanx!
Michael B.</p>

<p>P.S.,
Which college in California gives a lot of merit-based/fin. aid scholarships?</p>

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<p>As an out of state student you would pay around 40k a year. In state students pay around 20k, so its a pretty substantial price difference. It is incredibly difficult to establish CA residency once youre here. None of the CA public schools (so any UC or CSU) give alot of merit based aid. They are not very good about financial aid, since we have our lovely budget crisis. As an out of state student, it is also going to be very difficult to gain admission to either UCLA or Cal. If getting into an Ivy is a 10, Id say its an 8.5 to get into either of those schools from outside CA. Good luck!</p>

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<p>^ dude its not that hard to get into an Ivy if you are talking about Cornell, Brown, UPenn (non Wharton). etc... many out of state students get rejected from Berkeley but accepted into into Harvard. </p>

<p>That being said... I say it is roughly on par with top ivies for out of state students.</p>

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<p>if your parents are in the military or some other circumstances, i believe you can get the out of state fee waived, so you'd pay as much as in staters. on the SLR it mentioned non resident exemptions.</p>

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<p>"many out of state students get rejected from Berkeley but accepted into into Harvard. "</p>

<p>what?!</p>

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<p>Yeah, Tupac, I dont believe that at all. Do you personally know people who got accepted to Harvard but not Cal? It is hard to get in from out of state, but it is definitely harder to get into Harvard. Come on. And of course it is not as hard to get into Brown as it is to get into Yale, but it is still very difficult. Getting into Cal from out of state is definitely hard but not as hard as getting into an Ivy. Cals a good school but lets not get ridiculous.</p>

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<p>^ Yes. Out of state is pretty difficult. Cal places a greater emphasis on GPA, AP's and SAT II's... and Cal rejects 600 students with 1530+ SATs every year. </p>

<p>For in state, I doubt it will happen where a student gets into Harvard but not Berkeley (unless its one of the 6-8% of legacies at Harvard with below 1100 SAT). Remember that Cal's SAT averages are best one sitting score, while Ivies use best math + best verbal. </p>

<p>Berkeley has about 700 students with 1500+ SAT coming in every year. Most of these students chose Berkeley over Cornell, Brown, and other ivies. Remember the average SAT best one sitting score at Princeton is only 1430.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Yeah, Tupac, I dont believe that at all. Do you personally know people who got accepted to Harvard but not Cal? It is hard to get in from out of state, but it is definitely harder to get into Harvard. Come on. And of course it is not as hard to get into Brown as it is to get into Yale, but it is still very difficult. Getting into Cal from out of state is definitely hard but not as hard as getting into an Ivy. Cals a good school but lets not get ridiculous.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Actually, I had a friend who got into Columbia and not UCLA, and was from New York. Does this mean anything? No. But it's fun to tell you.</p>

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<p>you're talking about cal rejecting 1530+'s when if you talk about harvard, you would be talking about rejecting 1600's (my friend was one of them). even if the ivies use combined while UC uses one sitting, you're not going to find higher SAT average at berk. when you say most students chose berkeley over cornell, brown, etc. are you talking about people from california? because yes, that would make sense that a californian would want to pay less and get a great education at berkeley rather than go cross country. but if you're going to tell me that someone from the northeast is more often going to choose berkeley over brown/cornell, i'm just not going to believe that.</p>

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<p>^ Who knows what east coasters choose. The kids from NY that i met at Cal chose Berkeley over Columbia and Cornell. For them, they really wanted to come to California. It wasn't until I lived in downtown manhattan for several months, that I realized why. Its a great place to work, but not a place you would want to spend the most impressionable years of your life. </p>

<p>I know a girl from NY who chose UCSD engineering over Columbia. It is very difficult to get into UC"s from out of state. They all ended up staying in California afterwards... none have moved back.</p>

<p>By the way my post was initially about ivies that accept UC out of state rejects. Not about what school you would choose over another... just wanted to make that distinction.</p>

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<p>"dude its not that hard to get into an Ivy if you are talking about Cornell, Brown, UPenn (non Wharton). etc... "</p>

<p>Do you mean this? Because, well, why do so many people get rejected each year? It is that hard, so accept it.</p>

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<p>Ok so I resorted to statistics. According to the Berkeley website, these are the statistics for the Fall 2004 freshman class:</p>

<p>4,653 applicants from out-of-state
984 admitted (or 21%, compared with 26% of in-state applicants admitted)</p>

<p>From the Harvard website, regarding Fall 2004 freshman admissions:</p>

<p>19,752 RD applicants
2,110 admitted (or about 9.4%)</p>

<p>So, if 9.4% of all applicants get into Harvard, and 21% of out-of-state applicants get into Berkeley, which one is harder to get into? Obviously Harvard. Harvard is more than TWICE as selective as Berkeley, even if were talking about out of state applicants.</p>

<p>Just because you know one person who chose Cal or some UC over an Ivy doesnt mean what youre saying is true.</p>

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<p>An investigation by UC Regent John Moores also revealed Berkeley accepted 400 students with sub-1000 SAT's. Such would NEVER happen at an ivy.</p>

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<p>If you think Rice is expensive….then I don’t think you’d be able to afford Cal or UCLA from out of state. I’m gonna be heading down to UCLA in the fall and have to pay approximately $40,461. They didn’t give me anything except for loans…not even work study!!!
As for scholarships, we don’t qualify for most of the merit based ones except the out-of-state alumni scholarship (pays 4000 over 4 years….definitely not enough). That’s because most of them require that you are a “California high school student.”
I’m not sure…but last time I checked, the Rice tuition+living is only about $21,000-$22,000. At UC’s, even in-state students have to pay about that much. When I was considering colleges, I almost applied to Rice because it was the cheapest one I could find. So I wouldn’t put much hope into finding a school that cost any less.
As for how hard it is to get in to Cal and UCLA....I'd say Cal is pretty much a reach for most people from out of state. I got into UCLA with a 1500+ (one sitting) and 750+ SATIIs, and about 9 APs and a ton of EC's/Awards...still got rejected from Cal. </p>

<p>Good Luck :)</p>

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<p>futureCaligirl,</p>

<p>I don't know which in-state students you're talking to, because I never payed $21,000 a year in tuition...</p>

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<p>sorry...but I obviously don't know this info first hand since I'm from out of state...but I read on the UCLA guide to ePAL that for in-state students, the cost of attendence is $20,675. Of course, most in-state students probably qualify for some type of financial aid/scholarship. The $21,000 estimate I was talking about was the total cost w/o financial aid. =) Sorry for any confusion.</p>

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<p>That's including housing and other costs-of-living factors.</p>

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<p>My son who is a California resident, was rejected by UCLA; accepted by Harvard and CAL for the class of 2009.</p>

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<p>Most Asians from large public schools have to score at least 1500 to have a minimal chance at UCLA or Cal. Make that 1550+ for Cal. For them, Brown and Cornell is a piece of cake to get into. Riverside is an easy district to get into UC's from. Try LA, OC, or SF, the competition is vastly different. </p>

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<p>2% of students at Berkeley have below 1000 on their SAT. 6-8 % of students at ALL ivies have below 1100 on their SAT. Its a crapshoot, but most employers would rather hire a sub-par 1000 SAT student from Berkeley than an Ivy because Berkeley is a much tougher school, and the graduates are top notch in terms of work ethic and job marketing skills.</p>

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<p>But we're not talking about how difficult the actual school is. I think everyone here knows that Cal is a challenging school. We're talking about getting into the school. What about that 9.4% admission rate at Harvard, versus 21% at Berkeley (for out-of-state students)?</p>