@gordongramsey@Teenybellesmom When I started with the college admission process 8 years ago, I did not know much when it came to financial aid and financing a college education. That is how I discovered College Confidential and all the helpful posters with so much good information.
At my son’s HS, financial aid was never a subject brought up during any of the College information events and think this area is so important and needs to emphasized more than just college academics and fit.
When I was approached to be the UC College Forum champion, I tried to make it my mission to get the word out that the UC’s offer little to no financial aid to OOS and International applicants. Any time I see a CC poster asking for college chances at the UC’s or what do you think of my college list, I will always point the financial aid downfalls when applying.
No one has failed anyone. What is important is trying to get this vital information out there out there for everyone.
I say this time and time again, Where you go for Undergrad will not define, it is what you do with the opportunities you are given that will make you successful.
Getting into UCSD is a great achievement and you should be proud and I am sure that other colleges have recognized this also.
IMHO, you shouldn’t feel like you failed your kid at all. Most of us can’t afford to pay for OOS or private school fees. It’s part of the real world our kids need to learn at early age, and the only way we can help them is to teach them to work for it themselves. As in state parent, my daughter went to a UC and we didn’t get a cent of aid. And now it’s the same with my son. Early on we had already prep both kids that we just simply can’t afford the private or OOS tuition, they can apply but unless they get some crazy merit money then it’s simply out of question, and they understood that.
Daughter applied for aerospace major
Grades UW3.76, W4.09, W10-12 4.22
Got in at Purdue (where you get your major after first year grades)
Got in at San Jose State aerospace major
Waitlisted at UCSD aerospace and UCSC (Electrical since they did not have aerospace)
Waiting for UCB & USC decision (low probability)
If nothing changes from now to mid April probably accept SJSU and keep fingers crossed.
Hoping for UCSD waitlist to come through (undeclared engineering would be ok too since she is will not be competing for CS)
The acceptance letter said UCSD Is Top 25 in the world. I not sure who decides which school is top 25 based on what. USNW is based on surveys, just people’s opinions.
This is not correct; the major (not all) USNWR rankings are only partially based on reputation, together with many other quantitative parameters. Look at their methodology, which explains this in fetal.
Don’t feel like you failed your kid. I’ve been doing this for five years now and every year its so tough to hear and break the news to OOS applicants that the aid is essentially 0 for OOS students outside of loans. There are plenty of amazing colleges and while your daughter may be a bit disappointed now, once she goes to the school she chooses to attend and begins to make lifelong friends and memories, UCSD will be a distant memory.
Like @Gumbymom said, we try to do our best to educate our readers that the UC system does not provide aid to OOS students, even to EFC 0 families, the best they can do is if they get the regents scholarship but the base award amount is still very small.
Here too. We are in-state and will pay full fees. My son is a freshman at SLO = $28k plus my daughter will be a freshman next year and will choose a UC = $38. That’s alotta cheddar!
@Anxiouscollegestuden Yes. According to USNewWR, it’s #35 (tied with UCI) in the US. Higher based on majors. Bio Science is #8 in the US. For US Public School, it’s tied w/ UCI as #8 or 9, I think.
I just checked USNWR too. Wait. It said UCSD is #21 in the world. It beat Cornell. But from the same publisher, nationally UCSD is #35. It totally doesn’t make sense.
I can’t see any reason to blame yourself, nor any reason that there should be any blame. Blame for what? That your kid can’t go to a state school in another state? No, that’s just not how it works. When my kid applied to a bunch of in and out of state schools, we knew that the out of state public schools may not work out financially. Only one gave enough aid to make it comparable to our state schools. He ended up sticking with in-state, and all is well.
If your daughter didn’t know that out of state public schools were probably out of reach financially that’s unfortunate, but a lot of people don’t understand that. That’s common, and no one should be “blamed” for that.
I hope she has some good choices. Most everyone thrives wherever they go. Remember when “dream school” wasn’t a thing? People just went where they went, and those who did the college thing loved it for the most part, and went to schools they knew little about.
@PurpleFaithful Sometimes the filter is weird. If you pick Bio Sci, UCSD is #8 and only behind Berkeley (UCSF doesn’t count because it’s a grad school only), so technically #7…ahead of Johns Hopkins, UCLA, etc. :). I think one time I had hit a filter by mistake on mobile and the ranking was also different. #35 if you remove all filters.
The “world ranking” is equivalent to grad school ranking–that is, it evaluates research output and impact primarily. Not the same as “best national colleges” which is for undergraduate education.
My daughter has been accepted for Human Biology major, which was her 2nd priority.
Her 1st preference was Bio Engineering
From the thread i do see that it is tough to change major, specifically when changing into a engineering major
What are the career path options with Human Biology? She does not want to take the pre-med path.
She really likes UCSD and would have committed if she had been accepted into Bio Engineering