Univ of South Honors College is one of the colleges my kid is considering because they offer a good education and also decent scholarships. But once I added up likely scholarships my kid is likely or probably will receive from Univ of South Carolina (Lieber & Cooper) vs in-state tuition and costs of UCLA/UC Berkeley, actual estimate costs for University of South Carolina and UCLA/UC Berkeley are around $19,000 USD and $35,000 USD. University of South Carolina costs probably will end up higher than $19,000 USD due to higher travel costs to visit home in CA. I gotta say the gap in costs to attend between University of South Carolina and UCLA/UCB is not as big as I initially thought it would be. Note my kid has not yet been accepted to either UCLA/UC Berkeley, but I can already see that unless my kid receives Horseshoe/McNair scholarship from Univ of South Carolina (which is very difficult), it will be a hard choice. Any comments?
To be honest, it is nearly impossible to tell how the scholarships will be handed out. We didn’t even start thinking about colleges until September of senior year. Our HS counselors told us we should have already been on summer visits, etc. We applied to a lot of colleges, waited until the offers came in and then planned the visits from there. It is amazing how an offer of in-state tuition and other scholarships can affect your decision. You might find that one school will give a full ride and another will not even accept you. There is no rhyme or reason that I see. Other students had their colleges picked out and even bought university paraphernalia. They were pretty bummed when they didn’t get any scholarship offers, or worse yet, didn’t get accepted. I know your mind is going a hundred miles a minute right now with possibilities and it is hard to think about anything else, but it is best to 1. apply everywhere, 2. wait to see what is offered, 3. Narrow the choices, and 4. Plan your visits.
Yes, we plan to apply and see. Just pointing out that CA in-state tuition for UCLA and UC Berkeley is about the same as the in-state tuition for University of South Carolina Honors College, so there is a reason why not as many academically strong CA students attend University of South Carolina Honors College, if that’s the case.
@websensation If you can afford all of the schools without significant loans, then go to the school that is the best fit for your son. That being said, I am not sure how you came up with $19,000 for the annual cost for SCHC. If your son receives the Lieber Scholarship plus the Cooper, he will get $10,000 plus an instate tuition waiver. Therefore, his annual COA prior to travel should only be $13k to 15k at most.
@atlkaw6 I used the link here: http://www.sc.edu/apply/cost_tuition_financial_aid/index.php
Add to $23K, health insurance, spending money and transportation costs there and to visit CA, I think it’s fair to say, would come out to at least $27K to $29K. So subtracting $10K in scholarship money from Lieber and Cooper yields $17K to $19K. UCLA and UCB’s costs already includes most of costs. Well, my kid did submit his Honors College application etc., so we will see what kind of scholarships he gets. Our biggest concern is that Univ of South Carolina does not have as strong International Relations/Asian Studies Program as UCLA/UC Berkeley, even though it has #1 International Business Program.
Just think in general USC (South Carokina) will have a harder time persuading good students in CA to come to their school when the same students will probably be accepted at UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD or UCSB etc at in state tuition unless they get offered Horseshoe or MCNair.
Would be interested in finding out any CA people who went to USC despite getting into top UC schools.