Recently, I’ve been considering some colleges in California (UCLA, UC Berkely, USC), but I’m hesitant because I’ve lived Philadelphia my entire life. I’m especially concerned about LA of which I hear rumors about having a prevalence of fat shaming, superficiality, extreme dieting a lot and wearing lots of makeup. I also hear about California being SUPER liberal/SJW/PC, but I’m just a moderate Democrat. In addition, I hear of Cali being a lot more outdoorsy than the East coast, while I don’t mind doing outdoor activities every once in a while, I also like to just to lay around inside. To get to the point:
WHAT ARE THE MAJOR CULTURAL/SOCIAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EAST COAST AND CALIFORNIA?
California is a huge state. It has some of everything and everybody: Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, gay, straight, men, women, fat, skinny, white, black, Asian-American, Hispanic, etc., etc. It has great geographic diversity; there are places in the state where if you go two hours in one direction, you’ll be at the ocean, and two hours in the other, and you’re in the mountains. It has both deserts and places that get a ton of snow. So there are a lot of people there who take advantage of the opportunities presented by this diversity. But also ones who don’t.
Note that there is no out-of-state financial aid at California public universities; large merit scholarships are rare.
USC is a private school.
California’s population is mostly non-white, so many are Democrat-by-default due to the association of the Republican party with white racial resentment and racism (which dates back to choices and events the 1990s in California), but that does not mean that most people are super-left-wing in other aspects.
It is almost 900 miles from Humboldt State University to San Diego State University Imperial Valley. This is about the same distance as Dartmouth College to the University of North Carolina.
There are many cultural and social differences between the different parts of California, just as there are many cultural and social differences in the different parts of the East Coast between New England and the Carolinas. So it’s hard to generalize.
However, here are a few important points about California that East Coast high school students should understand right away:
Higher education in California is dominated by state universities (the UC and CSU systems).
The state universities in California have high out-of-state tuition rates, and offer **zero** financial aid to out-of-staters.
The cost of student housing in most cities in California is high by national standards.
It is virtually impossible for out-of-state students to qualify as California residents and pay in-state tuition.
So attending UCLA or UC Berkeley will cost you around $60,000 per year, or $240,000 for four years, with no possibility of financial aid. Realistically, does it make financial sense for you to pursue this option?
You also mentioned USC. USC is a private school, so the rules are different: the privates do offer financial aid to out-of-staters, and they are often particularly attractive to out-of-staters for that reason. In fact, at many of the top private schools in California (including USC), out-of-state students form a majority of the undergraduate enrollment, so the cultural differences may not be as big as you might think. The catch is that the top private colleges and universities in California (including USC) are often very difficult to get into – just like the top private colleges and universities on the East Coast.
Actually, the CSUs are considerably lower priced, for both in-state and out-of-state (but still no out-of-state financial aid). But most are commuter-heavy schools that are not that attractive to out-of-state students, other than California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.
A CSU might cost an out-of-stater only $40,000 per year, as opposed to $60,000 per year at a UC. But the CSUs, in general, aren’t well known out-of-state, and most out-of-staters aren’t interested.
For Fall 2016, the CSU with the highest percentage of out-of-state enrollment was actually San Diego State (21%), followed by Cal Poly-SLO (17%) and Cal Maritime (16%). My guess would be that the percentages would be under 10% at all other CSUs, and probably under 5% in most cases, but have not actually checked this.