How do people afford UCs these days? (Sacramento, Davis: rental, insurance)

[countofmc]

Originally Posted by jm1982

There is of course resistance from the old guard that fears this 'new' way of learning.

Well yea. Higher education has basically become a massive wealth transfer from young to old. The old will do everything in their power to maintain it as such.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

Here is the deal: You can become an RN with an Associates degree that you can get from a local Community college.

I believe you mean a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN), which requires only an A.A. from a community college. A Registered Nurse (RN) needs a Bachelors Degree. LVNs make significantly less than RNs.

Also, nursing programs in CA are very difficult to get into and have been for the past decade.

[clongirl]

Originally Posted by countofmc

I was startled by how much tuition AND expected COL has gone up at a lot of the larger UC schools like CAL, UCLA, UCSD, etc.

I didn't attend THAT long ago, but tuition was in the 5k range for the year. Dorms were fairly inexpensive (IIRC there was a dorm/dining plan option that was slightly under 7k for the entire academic school year).

With a combination of parental assistance, jobs, and a very modest (under 10k) amount of loans, I was able to get my degree. Very common story for most of my peers.

How do middle class families do it these days? It's not just the tuition, dorms have gone up quite a bit as well, and if your school doesn't guarantee housing for 4 years, you are looking at apartments in increasing COL areas...

Well, I haven't read through all the comments "countofmc", but for someone like me, with a child nearing college, 5k is VERY affordable. I'm dreading the bill however!!

Unfortunately some of the schools that my kid is interested in cost FAR more (as an out of state resident). Not sure how the expense will work out over all... In fact I wish my kid was more interested in a "UC" rather than a state university in another state!

I guess he'll have to work his a** off and appreciate his parents more!!

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

The world where a liberal arts degree meant being an educated person, and being an educated person opened opportunities around the world doesn't really exist for the most part any more. Perhaps as a society we should discourage attaining BA degrees with majors such as philosophy, art history, literature and the like by raising the tuition for those disciplines compared to the more useful arts of STEM.

If we want to produce robots, then just make robots. Why bother with the humans going to school thing?

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

I believe you mean a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN), which requires only an A.A. from a community college. A Registered Nurse (RN) needs a Bachelors Degree. LVNs make significantly less than RNs.

Also, nursing programs in CA are very difficult to get into and have been for the past decade.

No I mean an RN from a Community College. At the hospital we don't even hire LVN's anymore.

Here is the deal on RN's. In California you do not need to have an AA to become an RN. To become an RN you just need to complete the program and pass the boards. It takes 4 semesters to complete the program and all in state programs are monitored by the State.

The problem with not completing the AA requirements are that the RN license is not portable to other states. Because of the requirements for the RN program in California nearly every state will accept a California licensed RN providing that the RN has an AA. Not all states programs are portable to California though.

Most hospitals now are encouraging their RN's to go back to school and complete the BSN or MSN. Our healthcare system pays them to go or pays off any loans that they get while in the program. We even have an onsite campus where instructors from the University of Phoenix teach each Thursday evening those RN's in the BSN program. Any RN that plans on getting into management has to have at least a BSN.

Yes it can take some time getting into a program. Lets look at Ventura College's program. Most that apply are wait listed. The school encorages students to apply to other programs to increase the odds of getting in.

1. Prereq's have to be completed to get in. This can take 3 or 4 semesters depending on the student. Lets figure someone just starting out so we will say 4 semesters.

2. For Ventura's program you have to also become a CNA and they have a CNA program at the school. That is also competitive to get into.

3. Apply to the program

3A. The school places everyone on a point system. So many points for grades, so many points if you or your spouce are a Veteran, points if you work at a hospital now, points if you have another degree.

3B The top point getters are in the program. Lets say that they allow 30 people in, then the top 30 will start that semester. Everyone else gets a number and is wait listed. Some say that they toss all the names in a bowl and pull them out, numbering everyone 1 thru 50 or 100 or ???

3C If you are on the wating list and are under 30 chances are you will be in by the next semester. A co-worker recently got picked after 3 semesters on the list. She starts the program this coming semester. Once you are on the list you always move closer to joining the program. Many do wait 3 or 4 sememsters to get in.

4. Complete the program and have a wonderfull life.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

Our healthcare system pays them to go or pays off any loans that they get while in the program. We even have an onsite campus where instructors from the University of Phoenix teach each Thursday evening those RN's in the BSN program.

University of Phoenix? And people think that the UCs are expensive? (Also, this thread doesn't really apply to an employee's company paying for someone to go back to school, which means they've already had numerous years on the job.) Also, many employers won't even look at applicants with a degree from the U. of Phoenix.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

University of Phoenix? And people think that the UCs are expensive? (Also, this thread doesn't really apply to an employee's company paying for someone to go back to school, which means they've already had numerous years on the job.) Also, many employers won't even look at applicants with a degree from the U. of Phoenix.

The UC's and UOP have their place in the business of Education. Maybe their are employers that won't look at UOP grads but their are many that will. In another thread someone posted a list of the top universities in the nation and where they stood. UOP made the list at #414 out of 3,500 colleges. If you read the following article the author does claim that only the top 150 schools are worth attending. At 414 that would make UOP far from the top of the list. Still it would place UOP in the top 12% of all schools in the nation. You should check out the list and see what schools follow UOP.

//www.city-data.com/forum/colle...-colleges.html

What I was proposing by my posts were to offer Nursing as an option. Not that an employer would offer to pay for it. Still if you were to look into nursing you would find that many, many, employers will pay back the cost of earning your nursing degree. At our hospital we offer to pay for the cost of becoming an RN. We also offer to pay someone that wants to continue there education and earn their BSN or MSN. On top of employers paying for the cost, the US Government also offers options to have the student loan debt forgiven over time if you work for certain hospitals in rural or inner-city areas.

I just do not see that many fields where the cost is paid back by the employer as it is many times with nursing.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

Maybe their are employers that won't look at UOP grads but their are many that will.

An online university could never be compared to the UC system. University of Phoenix Accreditation Hits Snag As Panel Recommends Probation
And anyway, if we're going in that direction, the posts probably belong on the Education forum.

[twins4lynn]

Originally Posted by countofmc

I was startled by how much tuition AND expected COL has gone up at a lot of the larger UC schools like CAL, UCLA, UCSD, etc.

How do middle class families do it these days? It's not just the tuition, dorms have gone up quite a bit as well, and if your school doesn't guarantee housing for 4 years, you are looking at apartments in increasing COL areas...

My twins just went through the college application process and and will be attending college this fall. The truth....some middle class kids simply can't afford the UC's (and btw, all of the UC's cost basically the same with minor differences for housing). Both my son and daughter have friends who got into UC Berkeley, and none qualified for aid programs and their families simply couldn't afford the UC's total cost of attendance. They will be attending Community College and plan to transfer later to a UC. My son applied to a few UC's and his financial aid package included a $3,000 grant and loans, so total cost of attendance would have been about $30K (excluding the loans which we would not take). At that time, his sister planned to attend a CSU with a $25K price tag. We would have had a $55,000 per year college tuition bill.

My kids made other college choices (not the UC's), but their choice was not based on cost. How we are paying for college is basically the old fashion way. Many years before my kids were born I put money into an account to be used for "whatever in the future" and continued adding to that fund and never withdrew funds from the account. When the kids were born, it became their college fund, and throughout the years I continued adding to it. There are enough funds there to cover costs for two kids at the UC's (or CSU's) plus grad school. If we did not have this fund, they would both have to attend Community College and later a local CSU while living at home....we still wouldn't qualify for the financial aid packages and current income would not cover the costs of a UC or CSU with room/board...and we don't do loans.

Middle class families basically have to pay for college from savings and/or current income and/or loans. There is no other way around it.

[Malloric]

What does UC cost? | UC Admissions

Tuition: $13,200

Books and supplies: $1,500

Health insurance allowance/fee: $1,300

Room and board: $9,600

Personal/transportation: $3,000

TOTAL: $28,600

Frankly, a lot of those are pretty ridiculous.

Books/supples? They have this thing called the used book store. It's generally right across the street from campus. You can buy used and resell them so textbooks only cost about $40-50 per class. A lot of classes you don't even need a textbook. The textbook is on reserve at the library and you can photocopy a few pages if you really need them. A lot of my engineering books I found I really needed, but for economics, history, and what not? Nope. Instead of spending $500/quarter, I spent probably about $200.

Healht insurance: Middle-class are generally covered under their parents insurance. $0.

Room and board: I paid $250/month for a shared room, utilities/cable were another $50/mo or so. Food budget about another $250/mo. Total $550 or about $5,000/year.

Personal/Transportation: Jesus, I wish I spent $3,000 on that. It would have been nice. More like $1,000.

Total: $19,000 a year.
I got grants of about $5,000/year (almost no one pays full freight out of pocket), $14,000/year. Maybe $500/mo in parental assistance is reasonable, so that's around $10,000 a year left to fund. I worked part-time about 20 hours a week. Say 1000 hours a year, netting $7/hour. That leaves about $3,000 for loans. My third and fourth year I decided not to live so miserly. I had a car to get to classes at CSU Sacramento, didn't share a room, spent a little more on entertainment. Because of that, I had to take out more loans. It was a personal choice to borrow more because I wanted things I couldn't afford.