<p>I'm glad we are saving money by going to a community college first, but it's still going to cost us about 30,000 dollars a year. How are you going to pay for it? Financial Aid? Government loans? What if you can't get enough money through loans and Financial Aid? What then? I know it's a question that should have been addressed before I submitted a TAG, but I was thinking about prestige not cost. Has anybody giving this any serious thought?</p>
<p>What a lot of students do who go to community college is continue their studies at a local school, maybe an local UC which brings down the cost. I think that if you are considered needy, that CA has a state program that does give grant money towards UC attendance. NY state has assistance for families that make under $80K a year, and I have heard that it is modeled after the CA system. That with Direct student loans and if eligible, PELL, working summers and part time and hopefully saving some money while at commmunity college you can swing it. If you have to borrow more through Parent PLUS, at least it’s for two years, not four. That is how comm college has saved you some money. Instead of $120K, you can get it for 2/3 the cost or less, and have some time to save up for it.</p>
<p>Lots of ways to pay for college. One of the best things a parent can do is start a fund when their son or daughter is born. I think the one my parents did was the ‘529’ plan but I don’t know the specifics. That coupled with saving a substantial amount by attending 2 years at a CC, savings from part-time work since high school, financial aid = very little to no debt. I live close to UC Davis and that is my first choice.</p>
<p>Try the financial aid estimator on the UC campuses’ web sites to see what kind of financial aid they are likely to offer you, so that you can make appropriate plans.</p>
<p>The financial aid estimator is awesome! Thank for that.</p>
<p>Financial Aid, Blue and Gold, small Loans with PT work or might do a larger loan so I don’t have to work not to sure yet.
I think I did the UC and CSU estimated cost w/ financial aid and I would have to pay the same amount if I attended a CSU and UC based on their estimates. So shooting for a UC.</p>
<p>alot of this depends on what your family income is . I meet a kid on the bus who couldn’t afford to go to a UC since his folks made too much , </p>
<p>Say Billy has two parents who work full time, and their total income is 120k a year or so for a family of 4 . At that point your paying around the full 30k, which means an entire 4th of the families income - you have taxes too, lets assume the family can get it down to 20%, including SS taxes and property taxes . So before Billy goes to college the family has around 80% of their income , so take off another 25% and this family is dealing with operating on around 60k instead . Of course this is an over generalization , but ether way a middle class family is going to have a tough time paying for their kid to go to college . </p>
<p>In this respect, I actually think the CSU’s do a far better job, like you could work part time, live at home, and pay your entire way at a CSU( or take longer and go to your CSU part time) ,</p>
<p>Now if Joe decided to wait until he’s 26 to go off to college, assuming he’s not doing too well personally , he’ll get something like a full ride . </p>
<p>The entire financial aid system is screwed up . We need to switch to a European college system that’s based on the student and not what his parents can afford .</p>
<p>Can someone tell me more about the blue and gold program for the UCs? </p>
<p>Sent from my SGH-T999 using CC</p>
<p>@silver [University</a> of California - Blue + Gold Opportunity Plan](<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/paying-for-uc/financial-aid/grants/blue-gold/index.html]University”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/paying-for-uc/financial-aid/grants/blue-gold/index.html)</p>
<p>A friend of mine went through this. Her DD went to community college, commuted and did well. For her to get her Bachelor’s meant going away to school because there were no good options for what she wanted nearby, and what she wanted was ordinary and reasonable. Even the least expensive state schools ran were over $20K a year in terms of COA. What they did was make sure she got all could out of her less expensive local options and then had to borrow for the next two years away. She did live off campus in a shared room which cut costs drastically from universtiy housing and lived on ramen. She also worked a lot of part time hours and summers and used that money for expenses, but tt was still a tough go. Family made too much money for her to get any state/federal funds and she could not find a school that would take her as a transfer and give her much in financial aid. She came out pretty much the same on a number options she explored. Her best deal was a large state u that was not flagship as the tuition was a bit less, housing was available for less and they did throw in some money, not a lot but some. Altogether it was doable.</p>
<p>Is the blue and gold plan guaranteed if your household has an annual income of less than 80k? Doesn’t the number of individuals being supported factor in? For example my family makes less than 80k a year but we are a family of 3. How would this be different from a family that made less than 80k but supported 6 people? </p>
<p>Sent from my SGH-T999 using CC</p>
<p>I don’t have to pay for tuition. Parents and loans will help for the rest and I suppose getting a part-time job wouldn’t be that bad either.</p>
<p>commuting, so i calculate it to be 30k for the two years.</p>
<p>Where did you come up with 30k/year? Tuition is only a little over 13k for CA residents. If money is an issue, I strongly advise finding your own apartment instead of going through campus housing. Campus housing is always ridiculously inflated. For example, I have friends who paid $1,100/month at UCB for a TRIPLE when you could easily rent out a single room in an apartment for $500-1000 nearby. Since all of the UCs are so big, most of the apartments nearby are rented by students and a lot of them are very big, so you could still get the “dorm experience.” I see a lot of posts on craigslist from undergrads seeking roommates (either to rent a single room in a large 3+ bedroom apartment or to share a room for a much cheaper rate) and its pretty easy to find people who are similar to you.</p>
<p>13500 for tuition and another 15000 for room and board plus insurance, miscellaneous items and books. This is for UCSC. I think I’ll save around 5k living off campus. I used the financial estimator and it seems like I can get over 20k in aid. So it won’t have to take out that much In loans. The debt I’ll have shouldn’t be that much after 2 years. But I’m way ahead of myself; my TAG hasn’t even been approved yet lol.</p>