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<p>Bluebayou, you can expect quite a few challenges to your absolutely correct statement! It so happens that for a great number of students who attend Cal and UCLA with Pell grants, the option of private schools with generous scholarships SHOULD and DOES represent a better value. </p>
<p>However, one of the basic requirements is to … being admitted in the first place. The great number of Pell grantees at Cal and UCLA simply confirms that the student bodies between the UC and highly selective private are not exactly interchangeable, and that the students end up accepting the offer from the best school that accepted them … even it if costs them more on a net COA basis. And this is even truer at the lower ranked UC schools.</p>