<p>@turltletime - yes, my daughter could have attended a CalState and in fact CSU Long Beach was a contender right down to the wire. However, it seemed harsh to us that a middle to upper middle class family could not afford the best of our state schools, including the one (UCLA) that I put myself through fairly painlessly in the 1980’s. Also, many of the CalStates (there are several exceptions) are commuter schools without a real campus vibe. Having attended (& commuted to) one of these for one year, it was a bit depressing. We were really hoping for the whole live-away experience for our kids & did manage to find this out of state for D1. The best of the California options may be CalPoly San Luis Obispo, as it has Cal State prices at UC quality, but this was not a good option for my music major. My younger STEM-oriented daughter will definitely have it on her list!</p>
<p>I’m not sure where the comments about California being generous with aid are coming from - if you know something I don’t know, please share! This was not our experience.</p>
<p>“Affordable” is too fuzzy a term, so let’s discuss using a framework that makes things comparable: what percentage of household income spending on college do you deem reasonable?</p>
<p>COA at Clemson for in-state students is $26,912. Tuition and fees account for $13,808 of that amount. Clemson includes general required fees and average lab fees in that figure, but they don’t include other fees such as the CBBS fee (College of Business and Behavoiral Sciences). CBBS majors pay an additional $1,000 per semester, capped at $4,000 total for undergrad. The overwhelming majority of in-state students admitted to Clemson would qualify for one of the state scholarships. In SC, Clemson and USC would both be considered the flagships. </p>
<p>@PurpleTitan I think the question about what percentage of household INCOME is “affordable” isn’t necessarily the right question. During a couple of years in which our kids were both in college, the COA for both kids was 50% of our post-tax income. But we really weren’t spending that large a percentage of our income, because we had college savings (from previous years’ income). For the two kids’ college combined, we paid about 40% of COA out of pre-college savings, 30% came from the grandparents, and 30% came from our current “income” during the years the kids were enrolled. In part because we had saved and had a fairly high income, the kids did not receive financial aid, but one child received a token NMS award (would have been larger if he’d taken the offer from another school that admitted him).</p>
<p>ASU main campus (Tempe) is $25,255 total COA ($10,157 tuition, rest is room/board/fees). However, due to rampant grade inflation here, most of the kids we know qualify for the $9.500 tuition scholarship which brings the COA way down. For students who choose to commute, ASU can be almost free.</p>
How did you come to the conclusion that some states are cheap and other not ?
They all look the same to me. ~$25K - $32 K all inclusive. The more costly schools are in states with higher cost of living which also mean your salary should have been ~20-25% higher for the same job.</p>
<p>In our case, 15% of our total gross household income is our cap for college. My daughter, the student, can match that with savings and loans if necessary, for a total of $18K. Whatever her bio dad intends to contribute to add to that number and what kind of packages her list of schools provide will, in the end, determine where she attends.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to whine about our situation in California (well, alright, maybe just a little). I was more curious whether we were alone in this situation, and the answer seems to be No. Many of the flagships are right up against the $30K mark. For us, and this is a completely personal figure that we arrived at based on our individual situation, $20K was what we deemed affordable for us with our goals being to keep our retirement savings on track & our kids out of debt.</p>
<p>One thing I don’t see mentioned here with regard to UC financial aid is that income is not the only thing that determines whether you qualify. Asset limits for the Blue and Gold plan are around $64,000 which is not a great deal of money for parents who may be within hailing distance of retirement. A family who has taken a hit in the recession and may be low income due to job loss or a salary earner having to take a lower paid job may well be reluctant to draw down on savings when future employment prospects are uncertain.</p>
<p>Gertrude is correct when she says that the UC system is becoming unaffordable for many instate families who don’t qualify for financial aid and have to pay what amounts to one and a half times the instate tuition of many comparable universities, as well as one of the highest room and board rates in the country. In addition the Chancellor of UC has indicated that she wants to raise tuition to $15,564 over the next five years.</p>
<p>I have been good friends with three other families as we raised our kids through the California public school system. Our kids went through the gifted program and AP classes together and all did well with SAT scores and community service. All qualified for UC acceptance but none of them went directly into the UC system because of exactly the kind of expense we are talking about on this thread. Two kids took advantage of out of state scholarships and the other two took the community college transfer route. So yes they all ended up in college, but if they had qualified as “low income” they would have been able to go straight to the UC that accepted them with most of their expenses paid. In the meantime their parents continue to pay the same taxes, which they have paid over decades, to support the UC system while students whose parents have paid no tax in California get places reserved for their children.</p>
<p>@AlbionGirl - your experience sounds familiar. We have 3 college freshmen on our street - all excellent students. Two (including my D) accepted out of state offers at $20K or less total COA. The 3rd is attending UC Santa Barbara & will graduate $40-50K in debt. Her parents income is similar to ours. </p>
<p>@GertrudeMcFuzz FWIW, 30K is outside of our budget too. I’m not suggesting that 30K is a great deal only that it’s not so wildly off from what other states offer and that at least CA has some do-able options for almost all families who are willing to forgo Berkeley and UCLA. My comment on CA’s financial aid being on the generous side was a comparison to what other states offer.</p>
<p>What it comes down to is that we need to rethink our expectations of college. Is our state taxpayer’s goal for every child to have a sleep-away college experience? Is that a reasonable goal in today’s economy? Do I wish it were reasonable? Absolutely. In reality, a state goal that every kid who wants one can get a degree period is massive enough… I’m not sure we should be promising that everyone could go to Berkeley. Though, that conversation is a bit off topic here.</p>
<p>^Based on this chart, several of the UCs seem to be among the more “affordable” options. Many have lower costs than any of the SC schools, and SC has a much lower median household and per capita income than CA. Does CA have any comprehensive merit scholarship program? One of the factors in affordability, especially among the middle/upper middle classes, is the wide availability of state merit based scholarships (Life and Palmetto in SC, Hope in GA, etc). Of course, these are intended to keep top students in-state. I’m guessing this isn’t a big problem with CA schools. </p>
<p>@tk21769, do you know if the “Cost after need-based aid (out-of-state)” is factoring in loans or are those mainly Pell Grants? I’m finding it hard to believe that most kids are getting need-based grants at out-of-state flagships (beyond Pell). I was under the impression that only UNC and UVA (and maybe a handful of others) were generous with need-based aid to out-of-staters. Thanks!</p>
<p>@LucieTheLakie, UMich is expanding its OOS fin aid program as well.</p>
<p>In any case, I imagine that both Pell grants and Stafford loans would count under fin aid (I can’t see why not as they’re considered fin aid in most contexts).</p>
<p>Of course “average FA” never interested me much during college research about 5 - 8 years back. What I wanted to know was typical FA (and scholarship) for our situatin. That something that is now much easier due to NPC. </p>
<p>PurpleTitan, probably won’t help kids that are applying in the next couple years. UofM just launched fall 2013 the fund raising for the initiative to grow monies for out of state tuition discounts. The uni is about 1/2 way toward the goal in terms of donations. The first half always goes faster than the second half.</p>