No Berkeley, but I got accepted into 7 other schools. Advise please

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I know I’ve started a lot of threads that I have fallen to the bottom, and I’m fine with that. There are thousands of threads, posts, and members, with millions of things to say. But please, if you read this, could you offer me advice? This is, so far, the hardest thing I’ve ever had to decide. I respect the members of the SDMB and your opinions, and any advise you have to offer is welcome. Please.

Ok. Here it is.
I’ve been accepted to UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, Cal Poly, and University of La Verne. I was not accepted to Berekely. I don’t know where to go.
No matter where I go, it’s going to cost me approximately 10,000/yr. If I go to a UC I can get campus housing for about 500/yr for at least my freshman year. However, University of La Verne can offer me everything I am looking for in a school. It would just cost a couple hundred more to live there. I’d also be 500 miles away from my family.

If I suck it up and go to Davis (A beautiful and wonderful school) I’ll be closer to home, but I will not be happy at the school. But I could probably afford to go there. If I go to La Verne, we’ll be struggling, and on our own, but I’ll be happy there. All the schools in between (Cal Poly, Santa Barbara) I have the same problems with. Great schools, but not right for me.
What’s more important, my peace of mind, or my pocketbook?
I have a month to decide this, officially. But I think it would be best to decide now.
Jaime will back me up 100%, and has told me repeatedly that whatever I decide is fine with him. He’ll come with me, stay with me, support me, no matter what I decide. And I thank God for that. He is currently working at Best Buy and Gottschalks, and so will probably be able to get a job no matter where I go.

I just found out about Berekely, so I’m a little shocked and saddened, and I’m not thinking too clearly. So I may be leaving something important out. But I think I’ve included all the options
The majority of you have more years and experience than I do. I know that you probably have something to offer me. Nobody else seems to.

2

A college is going to be your physical and your intellectual home for the next four years (more or less). That’s an eternity if you’re not happy. I think going somewhere that you’ll be happy matters. A lot.

That said, it’s very hard to know, until you’re really in the thick of it, whether or not a school is right (or wrong) for you. I’ve seen it work both ways (I’m one of those former admissions geeks).

If you do have to make a financial decision that puts you on a campus where you think you’ll not be happy, chin up. Maybe you’ll be able to make it work for you. Every school has its niches and subclimates, and you can find yours and make the best of it.

Finally, have you heard from all of the financial aid offices at the schools? I mean, do you know for sure that the personal contribution is $10,000, and that the colleges will meet 100% of the rest of your need? For all four years? Because that’s how it works: They figger out what YOU can pay, using the FAFSA. Then the colleges, whether they charge like Bennington or like a public U, figure out how to meet the difference between actual cost (tuition + living expenses) and your contribution. Some of them might not meet it all. Some of them will meet it with a juicier loan/grant combo than others. Some of them will give you a great package the first year, and then not do so well in subsequent years.

Also, your contribution will be recalculated every year, and you’ll probably be considered an independent after you get married. That’ll probably drop your expected contribution.

Forgive me if this is all the 100th time you’ve heard it.

3

If it makes you feel any better, Berkely, beautiful though the Bay area is, is a rather rough place for an undergraduate. Required and popular classes are packed (e.g., 300-400 for a basic psychology class, with an equal number on the waiting list.) People were literally camping out on registrations days. Professors are very research-oriented and required to have only minimal contact with undergraduates. Most face-to-face teaching is done by well-meaning but harried and underpaid graduate students (of which I was one in a previous life.)

My advice is to choose a place that takes undergraduate education as seriously and graduate education. It’s all going to be expensive. Name recognition in your alma mater can take you a certain distance, but it’s not everything.

One thing I can say in favor of the U.C. system, though, is that they support their alumni well. As a graduate of Berkeley, I can make use of UC San Diego’s career services office and libraries for a small fee.

4

Cranky, I have received info from many colleges, and so far, they all expect about 10,000 from me. Next year, it’ll probably be cheaper, because I will be married, and they won’t look at my parent’s income. (it was nearly 100,000 last year).

I didn’t really want to go to Berkeley. I guess it hurt my pride more than anything else.

5

Do not choose your school over a few lousy bucks. I did that – it was a horrible mistake. Resolve to work a few more hours a week, take a bigger loan, live on nothing but ramen noodles and Kraft M&C, sell your car and buy a bicycle if you have to, but do not let money influence your choice of schools if you can at all avoid it.

As Cranky mentioned, that school is going to be your home for the next four years. It will also be the base for many of the memories that will mark your transition into adulthood. The quality of those memories will depend in no small part on whether you are happy when the events occur. It is crucial that you choose someplace where you will feel comfortable and sufficiently intellectually challenged.

You’ll be broke plenty in your life, but you will go to college only once.

6

Pepperlandgirl,

What are you interested in studying? If you plan on going to a post-graduate school (UC Davis’ school of Veterinary Science, for instance), you might consider what school has the programs you’ll eventually want to be involved with.
Of course, you’ll also want to attend a school that is strong in what disciplines you are interested in for undergrad work.

7

I spent one year at Berkeley because I thought I couldn’t afford MIT. Then I transferred, because manhattan is right - you’ve got to be at a college where you’re happy. If you don’t like it, don’t go there. IMHO, it would be better to take a year off and save money for college than to go someplace you don’t like.

8

I’m going to be an English Major (and ULV is a Liberal Arts college) and then go to law school (UC Davis has an amazing law school.)
Thank you everybody for your suggestions, I really appreciate it. And keep them coming!!

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Pepperlandgirl:

I don’t know if you remember me, but I replied to some of your questions regarding the University of Redlands.

While everything that cher3 says is true about Berkeley, it does offer some alternate courses and major programs that other schools do not. I’d go into more detail, but since your last post mentioned not really wanting to go there, I figured I’d just mention a few things that a couple of my friends did when they were not accepted to Cal.

One woman decided to enroll at UC Santa Cruz and spent two years there. She planned on transferring to Cal, so prepared a course load (and used the resources on campus) to further that goal. Now, this was almost ten years ago, so I’m not sure how UC’s transfer policy has changed.

Another friend wanted to go to Cal, so enrolled at a local community college and transferred from there. Both women tried to maintain high GPA’s.

I only mention these people because you mentioned cost being a factor. I’m not sure about your living situation, but if there are good JC’s or community colleges in your area, then one may be an option. It certainly would cost less.

In any event, you should feel proud to have been accepted to college. I guess your decision would depend a lot on what you and your gentleman friend want to do and where you’d like to live.

Anyway, my father went to ULV to get his teaching credential. He started out at Haskell Indian college, then went to San Bernardino Valley college, and finally ended up at ULV. He liked it very much and was pleased with the education he received. So, it goes to show you that you can have some flexibility with these things.

Like others have said, cost should not be a factor. Think of the money you spend as an investment. It is an investment in you education and your future.

Good luck to you!

MJ

10

I’ve got to chime in with the follow your heart thing, and definitely look for financial aid. There are random grants for anything these days. I was a faculty brat and went to U.S.C. and didn’t have to pay for it, but my sister chose to go to UC Santa Barbara - she worked while she was there but applied for every loan and grant she could get her sticky fingers on, and upon completing her PhD last year, had enough money to put a down payment on a house. She still has to pay some of that back, but the interest is way lower than prime, and now she has the tax writeoff from her mortgage which makes it easier to pay them off.

I’m not saying that everyone can pull off such a feat, but she did it, and our parents income was way north of $100,000 at the time.

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University of La Verne. I think you’ve pretty much answered your own question. You won’t be happy anywhere else. And what’s a couple of hundred dollars extra. Add it on to your student loans and pay it off when you graduate. You’ll be happy you spent the extra money in the end.

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Everyone else has already said it, but I’ll chime in too. Go with where you’ll be happy and don’t let a little money be the deciding factor. Once you’re out of school and in the job market, the same advice applies. You’ll always be happier following your heart than you would be following money.

13

Go to the one with the best football team!!

Nebraska '97 Alumni

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Hmmm, I don’t think La Verne even has a football team…which is kinda sad, since I like football.
Thank you everybody for your suggestions. This has really helped me a lot. I guess I just need reinforcement for something I already knew anyway.
Now, any suggestions on how I break this to my parents?

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I think that they probably know (just like we did) where you really want to go. They’re going to be sad because you’re not going to be at home any longer, but that will happen no matter where you go.

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The good law school at Davis is actually all the more reason to go somewhere else. Very often universities make it more difficult for their own undergraduates to be admitted to their professional schools. They’re looking to create a diverse class, and that means geography in addition to other factors.

I’ve got a different question for you: whose alumni have you met and liked? I chose my college sight unseen because I really loved all the folks I met at an alumni-hosted admitted student party. I kept thinking that these were the sort of people I wanted to be - and that was a terrific feeling. If that’s true of ULV, go there.

17

Go to the school you want to go to, and your parents can deal with it-- they can afford it, too. A couple of hundred? Sheesh, that’s nothing. Don’t worry about taking out student loans-- it’s an investment in your future. Of course you won’t know if you really like a school until you’ve been there a while, so it’s a bit of a crap shoot in the end-- I was waitlisted with no fin aid by the school I really wanted to go to, and went to a school that I hated at first, but after 6 months or so I really dug it and realized that I would have hated the other school more.
I’m a student at UCSB right now and it’s very pleasant-- near-paradisical surroundings, and the undergrads seem to have a rather noteworthy social scene (ahem. . .). I’d say it’s a good alternative to Berkeley, academically (they hire a lot of Berkeley grads into the humanities, so it’s sort of second generation), and smaller, but not the size of a private school. I went to a small school as an undergrad (one that I really could not afford, but hey) and I think it was a very very good thing.

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Well, the thing of it is, my parents aren’t paying for anything. Once I leave, I’m on my own. That’s why a couple hundred more a month is a big deal.

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I’m not familiar with the University of La Verne, but it sounds like a smaller school where you will get much more personal attention from faculty. I agree with xtnjohnson about your eventual application to Davis. It’s not important to have gone to the affiliated university. What is important is having stellar references from faculty who have really gotten to know you as an undergraduate.