<p>I finally received my acceptances from UCSD, UCLA, UCD and UW-Madison. I know that they all are really great schools and as a result am having tough time debating on where should I transfer to. I am going for a biology major leaning more towards cellular biology and genetics. I am a resident of the state of Illinois. I was checking on the tuition for all of them and it seems UW is about 40k while all the others are 50k (approx). I am still waiting for a reply from UCB, so how about that as well? I don't care about the climate and the hardcore party lives. I am looking towards some good research opportunities for undergrads and great faculty.</p>
<p>Please enlighten me with some good opinions..... :)</p>
<p>Yes it should be fine with the scholarships i am getting … Wouldn’t be a butt load of loans it seems as my parents are pretty supportive about it…</p>
<p>Well UIUC is a good engineering school from what all I heard. The other thing is that other IL flagships are probably not as good as compared to the ones that I got into. As far as Northwestern and U of C are concerned, they both are private schools and their tuition is same as the OOS public schools.</p>
<p>Since I completed my HS in another country I had problems getting documents from my teachers there and so private schools were not an option at all since those docs were really necessary for them.</p>
<p>UIUC required ACT even with 70 transferable credits that I had. I feel bad that my own state school acts more #$@#$ than the other schools which are probably better than UIUC.</p>
<p>For now I am leaning towards Wisconsin…Close and easy housing…might cut down that 40k to 30k and I do have good amount of scholarships that would cover about 50% of the tuition. My parents are also very supportive about this.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies…but please do give some good opinions…It’s too late at this point for applying anywhere now…I have to decide from what I have…</p>
<p>BTW~ Is it bad that I applied to those schools?? I dunno but some replies are making me feel bad that I am “paying too much.” Are they not even worth the money they ask for???</p>
<p>It’s not that it’s bad that you applied to these schools, it’s that IUIC is just as good and would be cheaper if you are in-state. But if you didn’t apply, that’s fine. You still have great options.</p>
<p>So are these scholarships outside scholarships or reduced tuition? Can you outline the cost of each school after the scholarships?</p>
<p>What are you planning to do with you degree and where do you want to be doing it? If you want to go to med school, any of these schools would be good and you would probably be best picking the lowest cost choice. If you plan on going to work, you may want to go to the one nearest the best job opportunities.</p>
<p>UW will provide a great all-around college experience–even if you don’t want to party just a little bit. Better than UCSD and UCD in that regard. UCLA is good too but the cost of living and having some fun there is MUCH higher. Always can go to one of those for grad school.</p>
<p>Well…I am leaning more towards research, i.e, job after my undergrad and med school is just my second priority. </p>
<p>The tuition is as follows :
UCs - All of them go about 35-37k a year
UW - 24k a year</p>
<p>Now as far as UW goes I live like 2 hours from the university so i would definitely be able to cut down on the other expenses and it wouldn’t be that much, at least something I can cover by myself. While at UCs, I would have that bulk load of living expenses as it’s away from home.</p>
<p>Now the scholarships I am receiving are :
Pell - 3k
CC Scholarship - 10k
PTK Scholarship - 5k
…tht’s it.</p>
<p>So rest is all loans but my parents might help cut that down and the tuition might decrease once I ask for a reduced tuition or apply for some grant. So that brings the question that HOW do you get eligible for reduced tuition???</p>
<p>Thanks guys for working this out with me…it means a lot for me.</p>
<p>At the moment am leaning towards UW and even my professor’s recommended that they all have similar levels but UW is coming up with genetics related researches. I am most probably going for Masters and then a combination of law ( one of my new interests as science and law is a good combination). </p>
<p>I just don’t want to regret later that I went to one school and not to other despite of the opportunities.</p>
<p>BTW~ which school has more job opportunities for undergrads in bio field?</p>
<p>Parent of incoming freshman at UW here – all I can say is that, at the admitted students visit day, the panel of UW current students all talked about their research they got involved in, wither through the official undergrad research scholars program (I think that is what it is called) and more informally, where they started working in someone’s lab bc they met with the professor. There is a link on the UW website for undergrad research, take a look at that.</p>
<p>I know undergrad research is being talked about everywhere, but these students seemed to say it was readily available through different avenues. </p>
<p>One item about jobs is that there are a lot of jobs in CA for biotech and patent law, but since you are considering a masters and law school, you can come to a UC for those and be well placed job wise at that point. UW is a great place too!</p>
<p>You have a pretty big Pell grant there which means your family has a pretty low EFC. Can they co-sign for the extra loans you are going to need each year? You can only borrow $7,500 with the Stafford Loan program. I don’t think that is going to even make UW-Madison possible.</p>
<p>There are really helpful calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org). Look for the one that compares financial aid packages, and run some of the loan repayment calculators too. You may find that you need to get some help from the transfer advisor at your CC and identify a new list of places to apply to.</p>
<p>Well, yeah we have low EFC but the thing is I have good amount of scholarships to help me take care of my tuition. My family is very supportive and as far as I know my loans wouldn’t exceed 30k or so for undergrad and I already have a well set plan for repayment. I did that homework long ago. I also have good amount of savings to support me.</p>
<p>Hi, my son is in the same boat as you were last year. Was wondering whether you chose UCLA or Madison, and if you are happy with your choice. His planned study is similar to yours, and he would be OOS in either school. Thanks!</p>
<p>I selected UW-Madison and am really happy with my choice. They have one of the oldest and best Biochemistry and Genetics department in the country and there’s a lot of first hand experience. They also have the most number of labs second to NIH, so if your son plans on working in any of them, which he should, it would be really helpful. UW-Madison also has good OOS grants and fee remissions for OOS students for low income families which reduce the fees making it equivalent to that of a state resident. The student life is just great. Above all, the cost of living would be significantly less than UCLA. For biological sciences I’d recommend UW-Madison. I selected UW-Madison over UC-Berkeley due to one of these reasons, but I did have many other significant reasons as well.</p>
<p>You can message me if you have many questions and I’d be more than happy to help! :)</p>
<p>PS: You can even ask a student from UCLA about the other things like education, but I talked to my professors before transferring from a CC and all of them recommended UW over UCLA, at least for my field of study, i.e, Genetics.</p>