Instructions to my son on how to buy a house in the SF Bay Area (Berkeley: best schools, university)

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by MountainHi

Berkeley is beefing up it's financial aid (scholarships) availability, now that they're aggressively recruiting foreign students who can afford to pay the new international tuition rates. They're using foreign students paying double or more the out-of-state tuition rate to fund an expanded scholarship program, which they say now allows them to fully fund all students from low-income families. How they factor middle-class parental incomes into their formula now, I don't know. UCLA may be doing the same, I'm not sure. But there are other options. Stanford offers full-ride (including housing) scholarships to anyone whose parents make below $125,000, if they qualify for admission. Students going to 2nd or 3rd-tier state schools would be paying lower tuition, which could be more easily offset with off-campus jobs and summer jobs. I don't know what kind of financial aid those schools offer.

Stanford is a private school with a 6% acceptance rate. Seriously, if you want to talk about private schools start a new thread. I posted the tuition and fees for state colleges as well as state universities. It is what it is, you and your doppelganger can spend the next 4 days trying to prove me wrong but the data is out there.

[MountainHi]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Stanford is a private school with a 6% acceptance rate. Seriously, if you want to talk about private schools start a new thread. I posted the tuition and fees for state colleges as well as state universities. It is what it is, you and your doppelganger can spend the next 4 days trying to prove me wrong but the data is out there.

UC Berkeley's admission rate isn't much better. UCLA and UC Berkeley have an acceptance rate of around 16%. Davis is much better, at 40%, and UCSC's is upwards of 60%. But you keep using Berkeley as an example, which is a lot like a private school, at this point.
"Doppelganger"?

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by MountainHi

Most (in-state) UC students don't pay the full fee. 3/4 of UC Berkeley students receive financial aid that drastically cuts or eliminates the tuition fees.

So what? I am responding to this post:

Originally Posted by bodyforlife99

Mountain, I think when you get into education, that has become a business decision that a parent should be involved with. My son graduated with no debt whatsoever and worked his way through school. I did the same (obviously for a significantly lower cost). We still have decent enough state colleges in CA. If one is going to dish out $30k-$40k on 4 years of college, they better make darn sure that they are at least getting into a field that has an abundance of opportunities and a good pay scale (and as stated, a parent should be involved in guiding the child on that).

Nothing there about financial assistance, grants or scholarships is there? Let's try to stay on topic.

[MountainHi]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

So what? I am responding to this post:



Nothing there about financial assistance, grants or scholarships is there? Let's try to stay on topic.

This is on-topic. Unless you figure that the whole issue of college education cost is off-topic on a thread about home purchasing. The OP doesn't feel it's off-topic, as he's participating in the digression.

The post you quoted implies financial aid by saying parents need to be involved in the college application process, treating it as a business decision, so they can minimize loans. He says his son graduated from college loan-free. One way to do that is to look for schools that maximize financial aid. Quibbling over whether that element is on-topic looks like nit-picking aimed at sidelining posts you don't agree with that are making valid points.

If you feel college costs are relevant to the discussion, as clearly you do, then let's discuss college costs. Financial aid is a part of that discussion for parents who haven't saved enough money to pay for their kids' higher education. If they've saved enough to bankroll their kid, or to cover most of the costs, then the issue is moot.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by MountainHi

The post you quoted implies financial aid by saying parents need to be involved in the college application process, treating it as a business decision, so they can minimize loans. He says his son graduated from college loan-free. One way to do that is to look for schools that maximize financial aid.

umm..no his post did not say that but I'm not going to spend the next three days arguing with you about it.

[MountainHi]

Originally Posted by bodyforlife99

Mountain, I think when you get into education, that has become a business decision that a parent should be involved with. My son graduated with no debt whatsoever and worked his way through school. I did the same (obviously for a significantly lower cost). We still have decent enough state colleges in CA. If one is going to dish out $30k-$40k on 4 years of college, they better make darn sure that they are at least getting into a field that has an abundance of opportunities and a good pay scale (and as stated, a parent should be involved in guiding the child on that). My friend's daughter is paying $38K per year and is a music major (I am very concerned for both of them and hope she at least goes for a dual major in the event the music thing doesn't pan out). I strongly suggest attending a junior college for the first two years before entering any type of university to friends of mine with children approaching college. I simply don't see the necessity for spending that kind of money for four years. I also don't see what's wrong with attempting some type of trade school instead of college (you can usually reduce cost and are being trained for a specific job...seems much more practical these days). Like everything, if you dish out that money, it's a gamble. It might result in a better opportunity with the potential for a much higher salary (that will help with a loan payoff). It might not. You roll the dice and hope you make the right decision (but clearly there is no necessity to get into that kind of debt if you choose not to).

For reference.

[bodyforlife99]

Pretty much what you're talking about here is roughly 10 to 12 hours a week of work at minimum wage (4 years) to be able to handle two years of college at the Cal State system. Obviously the cost for the junior college would be nominal. That doesn't sound like too much of a sacrifice to make to get a four year degree

[Ultrarunner]

I did work all through my college days... I was the weekend manager for a auto parts store...

Going off to college would not have worked... live at home and had a job going to school locally.

Just for the record... I started paying room and board at age 12 when I got my first W2 summer job...

[Ruth4Truth]

This is the strangest thread, lol! You'd think the fact that Berkeley offers debt-free financial aid to 75% of its CA-resident students would be heralded as great news. It sounds like the problem isn't being able to afford Berkeley, it's qualifying for entrance and actually being selected. That's great that some of the other UC's are so open for admissions. I wonder what their financial aid packages are like.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by bodyforlife99

Pretty much what you're talking about here is roughly 10 to 12 hours a week of work at minimum wage (4 years) to be able to handle two years of college at the Cal State system. Obviously the cost for the junior college would be nominal. That doesn't sound like too much of a sacrifice to make to get a four year degree

So if your minimum wage worker was lucky enough to get 40 hours a week their net after their $100-$120 weekly savings would be $195-$215 a week. I sure hope mom has that basement ready for them.

And yes, Community College is cheaper but it's not free, it is $46 per unit plus fees and books, or appx. $2700-$3000 a year. It might be tough to squeeze that out of the $195 a week that is left after saving for State College tuition though.