Question about living in LA... (apartment, rent, car insurance)

[caser007]

I am looking into moving to California for school. I currently live in Indiana and am thinking about going to New York to finish my last 2 years of college, then go to graduate school in California. The reason why I'm not moving now is because I've heard California is very expensive. I have always dreamt of living in LA since I was 13.

I'm going to tell you how much I will have to spend. With all my scholarships, grants, student loans, and money that I have I will have about 10,000 dollars for the first 6 months. Then I will get about 8,000 dollars the next 6 months. I've been told I cannot live in LA with this money. I am going to college to be an entertainment news writer and my dream job is to work in a magazine or work for E (which is a big big dream that might never happen).

So I was wondering how much money should I have saved up before I plan on moving to LA? And what are some good colleges in LA that is fairly easy to get into?

Thanks!!!

[RCCCB]

Many kids work a lot and go to school full time. Only the most recent generations believe you just go to school.
If you are going to be a doctor, maybe. You can rent a room around the college you want for a few hundred. Even Cal States cost about 6k a year without the books I think.
If you are an illegal, you get the cheaper in state rate.
If you are a citizen from another state, you for a year have to pay our your rear end until you estabils residency for a year last I heard.

Good luck.

[altoidboy]

It will be difficult. Adding your figures together, it sounds like you'll have a total of $18,000 over 12 months, which breaks down to $1500/month.

Definitely think about working a second job.

I'm almost certain you're going to have to think about a roommate situation. Lots of crazies on Craigslist, but if you carefully select, you will hopefully find a decent situation in a not-too-bad part of town.

You will need a car. Are you coming with one? Ask your insurance company what the rate is going to be if you move to L.A.

Figure you need to add rent + car insurance + gas + food + utilities as the very very bare minimum. And that is ramen noodles existence. It will be very tough on $1500/month in L.A., where a 1br apartment might easily cost you $1200/month. Which is why I said consider a second job.

I don't mean to discourage you -- you can make it happen if you really want it to happen -- but it'll require real sacrifice and real counting-the-cost and watching every penny if you don't want to fall into a spiral of debt like the majority of people here (and the state itself).

[serp]

RCCCB is right about nonresident tuition being pretty intense. For the University of California schools like UCLA it costs an extra 15,000 per year if you're not from the state for graduates. It might be worth it to live here for a year working to just get the resident tuition. The California State University schools are a tier under the UCs but they're still good schools. Easier to get into and less money. CSUN and CSULA are the ones in the area that come to mind. I don't know anything about CSULA but I've heard CSUN is decent. CSUN's tuition is $372 extra per unit per semester if you're a non-resident. If you're taking lets say 16 units a semester that's about 12 grand a year extra. I'm not familiar with journalism/writing programs so I can't help you out there. If you want more information about tuitions here's some links for UCLA and CSUN. To directly answer your question I don't think 18,000 dollars is going to cut it for living costs and going to school but that also depends on how frugal you can be and your willingness to take out loans. You can work, get a couple of roommates and start loving ramen.

This one's a pdf with the graduate fee breakdown for UCLA.
http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/gss/library/1011gradfees.pdf
This is the site for CSUN's fee breakdowns.
http://www.csun.edu/finaid/cost10.html (broken link)

[caser007]

I am not an illegal immigrant. I'm caucasian and I was planning on finding a job before I come. I looked on Craigslist and it seems its a lot cheaper in LA than NYC unless I'm mistaken. And I will have a car if I come

[altoidboy]

L.A. probably is, generally speaking, cheaper than Manhattan. But still far far more expensive than most reasonable parts of the country.

[uptown_urbanist]

It would be very, very tough on that budget. Get a job (you may qualify for a work-study job on campus), get roommates, definitely DON'T get a car (it would send you over the edge on that tiny budget; yeah, it could be nice, but unless you're plannking on living in it, how are you going to afford to maintain one and pay for insurance?). And be warned that many of the public schools are very tough to get into, especially for an out-of-state transfer student; there may be some smaller private colleges with less stringent requirements, but are you sure it's really worth the money if you are indeed looking for a college that's "fairly easy to get into"? You may be better off trying to find a summer internship in LA, or waiting until after graduation and then try to get a job. Yes, it's far cheaper than NYC, but that doesn't mean it's "cheap." If you're serious about school and the career, though, look for the right school fit first, and see if there's any financial aid.

[ambermerci]

Lol @ "illegal-mmigrant" comments.
Sheesh.

[1200RT]

Originally Posted by caser007

I looked on Craigslist and it seems its a lot cheaper in LA than NYC unless I'm mistaken.

Originally Posted by altoidboy

L.A. probably is, generally speaking, cheaper than Manhattan. But still far far more expensive than most reasonable parts of the country.

Slightly cheaper as far as rent goes. SLIGHTLY.

Tax (sales) is higher in LA, than NYC, by almost a full point, meaning you'll spend slightly more here on purchases than NY.

Utilities in LA will likely be cheaper - you'll rarely need heat, and most areas are cool enough in the summer to not need AC.