UC's FA for "poor-ish" Out-of-State students

Paying for College
1

Hey there guys, I’m moving into my junior year, and like most students I’m doing research on schools I might want to apply to when the time comes. However, I do have a little financial dilemma. My parents gave me the honest financial talk about how much they can afford to give me for college. We are a family of 5 with a $60k pre-tax income. Although, my dad is self employed so he has to pay the employer’s end of the taxes himself. This means we make less than the $60k I stated above. Also, I have some medical needs (T1 diabetes). That eats up $2k-3k or so a year in insurance and other expenses. There are students in worse situations that I am. Although, will my family’s situation harbor me the same amount of grants at a UC school as it would a private school. When I used one of those calculators for FA on the private schools (Northwestern, Brown, JHU…) the amount my family was expected to contribute was lower or about the same to the UC’s. Yet, I understand that the UC’s prefer to give FA to students in-state. I completely understand and sympathize to the favoritism. Although, if I were accepted to like UCLA or UCB would I be too immature to expect a similar amount in grants as a private school might give because of my family’s lower income?

Thanks!

2

UCs have huge student populations which makes it hard for them to provide FA, and they do favorite in-state students which makes it even harder on OOS students. If you have financial restraints and don’t live in California, I would say UCs are not the best choice for you.

3

You presumably saw from the net price calculators that UCs’ financial aid does not cover the out-of-state additional tuition (about $24,000 per year). A few hard-to-get merit scholarships do include that, but those are a lot harder to get than admission.

Be aware that not all private schools’ financial aid will be as good as that at the schools you named. In particular, less selective schools that you may consider to be admission safeties often do not have very good financial aid. However, some may have large merit scholarships. See the lists at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html .

4

Assume $55k per year. The UCs are publicly funded by California taxpayers so very little financial aid is given to OOS students, regardless of hardship, because the state also has hardship students that are too many to count.

5

If the cost of Brown was the same as OOS for any state school for a family of five on $60,000 you must have done it wrong. I just did the calculator for Holy Cross for someone like that and it came out to about $8k per year.

If you have the stats for Northwestern, Brown and Hopkins, I would presume there are many private schools you could go to for much less than OOS tuition and there are a bunch of other state schools like Alabama that have full tuition merit deals. Also, there are other private schools where merit could equate to a full ride like St. Lawrence or the Honors College at Providence.

Where do you live by the way.

6

UCs will NOT be affordable to you.

UCs expect OOS students to pay their EFCs PLUS $23k PLUS full loans and work study.

so, if your EFC is $5k per year, then your family will be told that they have to pay $28k per year…plus full loans and work study.

Take them off your list.

Have you asked your parents how much they will pay each year?

Copy/paste your UC NPC results.

BTW…the NPCs on the private schools’ NPCs will not be accurate for you since your dad is self-employed. Those schools will “add back in” some of your dad’s deductions and expect him to pay more.

You need to protect yourself by including some financial safeties…schools that you know for sure are affordable.

7

Actually they give absolutely zero dollars in grants for the OOS portion of the bill. UCs are unaffordable to you, sorry to say.

8

UC’s are not a good option for you. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/paying-for-uc/whats-available/index.html#out-of-state

9

@mom2collegekids My parents have given me estimates as to what they can afford to give me when the time comes. Really, $8,000 a year is most likely going to be what I receive. I do have very generous grandparents who will match that. This is about ~$16,000. However, this might change from year to year. As you can see I really will depend on the FA to pay the remaining costs. Also I will apply to lots of scholarships in order to minimize my possible debt. Here is what my NPC results showed for UCB.

Expected Family Contribution

Parent Contribution:$0.00
Student Contribution:+$1,400.00
Expected Family Contribution: $1,400.00
Estimated Award

Grant Award: $27,510.00
Student Loan and Work: $7,950.00
Parent Loan: $24,708.00
Estimated Total Cost of Attendance

Tuition and Fees+$16,246.00
Room and Board+$15,422.00
Books and Supplies+$1,240.00
Other Expenses+$2,552.00
Non-Resident Tuition+$24,708.00
Total Cost of Attendance:$60,168.00
Grant Award:-$27,510.00

Estimated Net Cost:$32,658.00

This is really unaffordable… Honestly, there is no way my family can afford this. Also, if I want to study chemistry there will be no way of affording this after graduation. Will the fact that we own a home reduce the amount of aid I receive? My parents own a house that is valued at $350,000. It was purchased for about $320,000. They bought a smaller house. After selling it many years ago they used the profit as a downpayment for this house. Also, my dad has a living allowance that makes this affordable. However, I don’t imagine that many people in our income-bracket own a home this expensive. Will that fact drastically change the FA even for schools not in the UC system?

On a positive note: I do have multiple safeties that are affordable. Also, the local university (University of Alaska Anchorage) offers merit scholarships. Based upon my test scores I should receive a close to full-ride scholarship. I’m not one of those people that must go to a prestigious school in order to feel like he/she accomplished something in life. If gain acceptance into a UC school or an elite private school, but if it is too expensive then I will just go to a more affordable school. However, if it is possible for my family (financially speaking) then that is something I would like to look into.

10

Why bother applying to the UC’s if they are unaffordable? Tuition for OOS students is also expected to increase about 8% over the next few years based on the new UC budget. I wouldn’t waste $70/campus application fee if you cannot afford to attend. Your parents will have to take out a Parent Plus loan for about $100,000 over 4 years for you to attend these schools. Does this make sense? Did you show them the NPC?

11

The value of your primary residence is not used by the UCs. They use the FAFSA only, and that does not ask for information about your primary residence value…at all.

12

@gumbymom Yes, I have been communicating my discoveries to them… My mom grew up in California. Also I have close family in Socal and Norcal. That is why I first believed it would be great to go to a UC. However, that does not mean it is possible. The cost is just too outrageous. If I still really want to go to a California school it will NOT be with a UC.

Thanks everyone for advising me and clearing the air. It’s nice learning this before I apply to schools. As of now the UC’s are off my list. LOL

13

What is this ‘living allowance’ that your self-employed dad receives?

14

In addition to the $8k + $8k from your parents and grandparents, can you pitch in $3k per year from your summer job?

15

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Also, my dad has a living allowance that makes this affordable.

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What is this from??

And did you add in that living allowance into the calculator?

Did you include the Alaska money given to each resident?

16

No offense to the OP…but if I were still a Calif resident, this would annoy me…


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Grant Award: $27,510.00 .

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Unless UCs are not getting any of that from public funds.

17

If you are in Alaska, you should be able to participate in the WUE program. This would allow you to go for 150 percent of the in-state tuition to specific colleges in the wast. Of course, only one UC is on the list and that’s UC Merced. The California options are mostly lesser known CSU campuses. However, if you are looking for out of state, might be worth looking at the list. perhaps one of those schools would make sense financially.

http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all

If you have really high stats, you could look at some of the schools that meet full demonstrated need, like the Claremont schools (Pomona, Scripps, etc.) Of course, that’s not to say you’d qualify for enough aid but you could take a look.

18

As a practical matter, it is unlikely that many OOS students getting that offer matriculate (and the lowest possible OOS net price without merit scholarships is still about what in-state list price is), since the net price will be unaffordable. So there really is not much to be annoyed about.

19

I don’t see why it would annoy anyone. It’s really no different than another school giving merit money since the requirements to get into a UC from OOS (or even instate) are pretty high. How is it different than Alabama or Louisiana or Temple giving merit scholarships that are funded with state tax money?

The student would still have to pay $24000 for the OOS surcharge, which they have generously put as a Plus loan on the package.

20

@twoinanddone Alabama does NOT fund its merit scholarships with tax-payer dollars. Bama’s scholarships are funded by capital campaign drives and Crimson Tide Foundation (profits from football).

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As a practical matter, it is unlikely that many OOS students getting that offer matriculate (and the lowest possible OOS net price without merit scholarships is still about what in-state list price is), since the net price will be unaffordable. So there really is not much to be annoyed about.


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@ucbalumnus While it’s true that few intact families with 0 EFC could pay, there would be instances where the custodial parent’s EFC is 0, but the NCP is paying…since the UC’s do not ask for NCP info…which they SHOULD, at least from OOS families.