townrater townrater started this thread
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I’m a junior in north-eastern NJ now, so I’m used to the high cost of living. I hate living here, it’s cold & many people are rude. I haven’t been to California, but have read so much online. I’m going to visit sometime before I apply (fall), but I don’t know when yet. I’ve been looking at USC Los Angeles & Los Angeles Valley College. I want to get a Master’s in Social Work.
I have a 3.7-ish GPA, and have a few extra curricular activities. I go to a public school that’s one of the 25 worst in NJ.
My parent is worried it’ll be too expensive, and far. I’m planning to work & study in college. I know in-state is cheaper, but NJ colleges are still very expensive. I don’t know anyone out there except for one friend, and she lives in San Fransisco, not LA. My boyfriend says he would come. We definitely want to live there after college. We’ve been together almost a year & a half, but still, anything could happen.
My second choice area is Miami. I was looking at CUNY Hunter in NYC, but I’ve heard they’re having financial problems.
Please comment experiences/advice, or suggest colleges.
Similar situation here. (In NJ, want to go to CA), except I’m a senior.
Do you have any test scores yet? SAT, ACT or PSAT would work.
How much can your parents contribute towards your college education each year? If you don’t know, ask them.
You personally can only take out $5500 as a freshman, and work-study will help, but there will still be a sizable gap.
USC is very expensive, but they are a meets full need school, so you will have to run the NPC on their website to see what they will expect you to pay.
LAVC is a community college, and I’m not sure if it’s a good choice for what you want. It will be significantly more expensive than a NJ community college, and typically transfer students do not get very good aid anyway.
You should check out Pepperdine, chapman, loyola Marymount
And if your sat scores are good then:
CLaremont McKenna, scripps, pitzer
Also check out some of the SoCal Ucs like irvine, San Diego, riverside, SANTa Barbara, ucla. You get an advantage if you come from a worse school
The high cost of living is not the problem, it is the high cost of college tuition for an OOS applicant that will be a problem if you look at any of the California publics such as the UC’s $220K with litlle to no FA. Take the advice of above posters and concentrate on California privates where your chances for FA are much better. Also attending a LA CC will be pricey and as pointed at above, as a transfer you will get very little aid. Good Luck and do more research.
Coming from a bad school is only an advantage as an in-state applicant not OOS.
Social work is one of the lowest paying professions there is. Do NOT take out large undergraduate loans for a degree in that area. Honestly… you probably should look at options to live at home and commute to college to keep your costs down. You can always move to a warmer climate when you are done with college.
If you still want to look at schools in CA, use the net price calculators on each college website to figure out your probable cost of attendance. You need to look at private schools, as you would be OOS at a public college for all four years. However, MANY (most) private schools do not “meet need” when providing financial aid. So affordability could be a huge issue. If you come back with stellar SAT or ACT scores, then the story could change. But you haven’t provided any scores.
Given the whole “taking my boyfriend along” scenario, to me it feels like you are daydreaming, not making a solid plan where you will have the degree you need and not be buried in debt.
You might qualify for a decent scholarship at Whittier.
IMPORTANT
I actually was looking at Cal State Los Angeles, not USC. USC is way too expensive, as are Loyola and Pepperdine.
I got a 140 on the PSAT, I know that’s not great. I’m going to get tutoring before I take the SAT, and I also want to take the ACT.
My boyfriend wants to go to college in the same area, so I don’t mean to sound like I’m daydreaming. I know we could break up before then.
My estimated contribution was 8K (?) online, I really think that’s too high. I would be doing work-study. My family isn’t rich, so the costs would be lower for us. But, that’s what the estimates have said, they could change.
If you think USC is expensive, that Pepperdine probably also isn’t an option. It is also a religiously-oriented schools, although that may be fine with you.
Have you actually run the net price calculators that each college offers on their website? Don’t look at your FAFSA EFC for this, each college does their own calculations, so you need to run the calculation for each of them with your family’s information.
As an OOS student, you would be paying around $30K/year for any of the Cal States and again no FA will be available. You need to target private schools, where being OOS will not matter in the cost. Pepperdine is very religious based so that is something to consider. Whittier College would be a good option. Not super competitive to get in and you could get some decent FA. You need to run the net price calculators and figure out your EFC before you start dreaming about any schools in LA. You also need to consider travel costs into your price since I assume you will want to visit your family occassionally.
@intparent I’m Christian, so I wouldn’t be against Catholic schools. But it’s not important to me. Yes, I just saw the Pepperdine tuitions, I don’t think my family could afford that.
@Gumbymom: No FA would be available? Isn’t FAFSA available for any school, and scholarships? Whittier is also expensive, it’s 41K. That’s only a little more than the better colleges in NJ, though. For Cal State, it’s about 15K as a non-resident off campus. I would rather rent a room, it seems cheaper. But, I’m seeing now that it’s $250 per unit as an OOS resident. So, that would be pricey, but don’t you become in-state after a year?
FASFA is an application that determines financial need. Most California publics provide FA to in-state students in the form of Cal grants and Blue & Gold scholarships. These are not available to OOS applicants. You would be eligible for federal student loan of $5500 your first year and a Pell grant which would not cover the cost of all of the Cal States. Here is the cost of attendance for Cal State LA. If you commute, you can save costs, but you still need somewhere to live.
http://www.calstatela.edu/financialaid/2014-2015-cost-attendance
California residency is hard to come by especially if you are coming to California for the purpose of an education. Here is a link from the UCB website which explains how to estabilsh California residency and many students have found it is not easy. You are better off staying closer to home for Undergrad then coming to California for work or for Grad school. Without alot of financial support from your family or FA, it will be very difficult to afford California schools unless you target privates where you would get good need based and merit based financial aid.
http://registrar.berkeley.edu/establish.html?no_server_init
No, you do NOT become instate after a year. If that were true, everyone would do that.
You’re a resident of where your PARENTS live because that is where THEY pay taxes. Going to school in Calif does NOT make you a resident…at all.
And it doesn’t matter if the school uses FAFSA, that doesn’t determine what aid you’d get. A Calif school will consider you to be OOS and will expect you to PAY those OOS rates. The gov’t isn’t going to give you money to go OOS to a Calif public…the tax payers can’t afford that. You’d get very little aid and be expected to pay all the other costs yourself.
Run the net price calculators on the various websites, including the CSUs.
Cal State LA is a decent Cal State but definitely not worth the extra money required to attend as an OOS.
I’ve read with the amount of money my family makes, Cal State would only be about 6K for out of state (instead of 15K) or 5K in state (instead of 6K). Renting rooms is only about $450 a month, but I would still have a lot of other costs (car, food, etc).
My mom wants me to go to college here, & maybe move to California after I get my associates. he residency requirements for California do seem kind of complicated. But, I would want to stay there after college, I’m not sure if that would help things. Thanks for the help!
You have your cost wrong for CSUs that aren’t Cal Polys…
Nonresident tuition is currently assessed at the rate of $372 per semester unit
And that is IN ADDITION to the instate fee of about $6k per year. So tuition (not room and board), for an OOS student would be about $17,000 per year. So, adding room, board, books, etc…the cost is easily over $30k.
It’s not affordable.
On the website for under-grad, it says $248 per unit for OOS. I wasn’t including the “personal/misc” and “transportation” sections on the website, b/c I don’t know where they’re getting those numbers from. So it would be about 17K for OOS for off-campus. (About 11K with FASFA for me) If I do live on campus, it will be over 30K, before financial aid. But, I would rent a room instead. I know it’s still pricey, though.
Why on earth would you want to go to CA … do you really like smog?
I live in New Jersey, 10 minutes from NYC. So, I’m used to the dirty air. I’ve only heard about smog in SF.
California has beautiful beaches, with a lot of large cities, but also cool small towns. I would love the outdoor-sy lifestyle. I can’t experience that in NJ, because it’s only nice outside about three months of the year.
All I can tell you is to continue to research the California schools and their costs. If you can get a really competitive score on your SAT/ACT and keep up your GPA, you would be in a better position for Merit scholarships at Whittier, Pepperdine and the other California privates. Many times with scholarships and FA, the cost will be cheaper than a public. Good Luck and just be realistic when it comes to colleges. Dreams are nice, but it is not worth going into debt at an early age to make that dream come true.