Is the high tuition ($50,000) at Berkeley as an OOS student is worth it? I am from the lower end of a middle-class household.
My options are PLUS loan or some kinds of random scholarships. Does anyone know of some awsome outside scholarships I can apply to? Is it possible to cover all the tuition by applying to as many scholarships as I can? And does anybody have experiences dealing with the PLUS loan?
I also understand that the original $60,000 tuition is an estimate for an average student. If I live frugally during my time at Berkeley–that is, choosing the cheapest housing/meal plans/supplies/whatever–then I could save some money?
Btw, I will be doing pre-business/math and will apply to Haas in sophomore year, if I decided to go. I know that Berkeley is an excellent school in this area of study, so I do not want to easily let go of this opportunity to attend. So I really need some cost-benefit analysis… help : (
The best and most substantial scholarships are given to you by the school itself and as an OOS student, you could be eligible for Regents and a few merit scholarships available through UCB but not enough to cover most of your expenses. What is in your FA package? Any outside scholarships are long taken and many are only for a year and not renewable. Did you run the NPC (Net Price Calculator) for UCB before applying? This should have given you an indication of the costs. I have no good advice either than if you have to take out substantial amount of student and Parent Plus loans, then UCB is unaffordable. No school is worth $240K in debt.
Living frugally in California won’t affect nor impact that high cost of tuition or housing. You might be able to reduce your costs to $50k, at the most.
The area has some of the most expensive living and housing costs in the country.
For OOS students, this means limited financial resources, and aid, because the UCs are public schools funded by state taxpayers for state taxpayers. The state is not going to fund non-residents since it already has thousands of OOS applicants who are beating down the door to pay those costs. The state of California needs the money, so they are not going to reduce the costs. At the most, this means very little scholarship money, of a few thousand per year, for OOS. Most outside scholarships are for very few dollars and only for one year, and. . . too many students apply for these!
You are not eligible to take out that amount in loans. If you are low income, your parents won’t be eligible for large parent plus loans.
Why would your parents let you apply to a school where you had no idea how much it would cost? The NPC would have given you the estimated costs.
If you’re dead set on going here there are ways to save money but it will not really compare to what you could save if you were in-state. I have friends who are OOS students right now and they are struggling to pay housing + tuition and they come from solid middle class families.
No, it is not worth it. With the stats you had to have to secure a “yes” from Cal, I am sure you have others, from top-notch schools.
Do not let the call of the prestige of this, or any other, university have you make a decision for undergraduate education that will impede your ability to move on in life after you have graduated.
Why didn’t u concentrate on schools that give generous need-based FA? There are PLENTY of them.
Why even BOTHER applying to an OOS PUBLIC school you obviously cannot afford??? A cost/benefit analysis would have told you that it was a waste of money to even pay the application fee and test scores report.
There’s only Army & Marines ROTC (Navy & AF are picky about majors), and those scholarships are competitive. Plus you will have to give years of service in return after you graduate.
Not attending Berkeley is probably the most effective to save some significant amount of money if cost is a very sensitive factor. Getting random scholarships are never easy nor predictable and living frugal can only do so much. If you have strong interest to work at the SF bay area with a business degree, then perhaps it is worth it, but even that I’m coming to an observation that the Haas degree doesn’t give you a particular competitive advantage for business jobs, at least with the degree alone.
Yes, Berkeley Haas is one fine program, but so are the other business programs especially at undergrad level when the rankings are within top 50.