UC "tuition" increase

[mentoz]

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though it's not official yet, we're looking at a $4,500 professional student fee (aka tuition, sort of) increase .. for UCSF in particular, last year's professional student fee was $8,173 .. now with the $4,500 increase, we're looking at a student fee of ~13K .. add this to the other fees (registration fee, educational fee, etc. etc.) which come to about 8K, we can expect the Total Fee to be ~20-21K .. (in my case ~33K) ...

we all expect the fees to increase in the next couple of years, but supposedly at a more stable rate .. but i'm personally not counting on it .. those who are in their 3rd and 4th years now didn't expect such a hike in 03-04, did they? who knows what will happen in the future (besides the fees increasing) ..

the budget cuts will affect administration, state-funded research, student services, etc. .. unless our tuition hike compensates for whatever deficiencies the budget cuts caused, i don't see how the cuts won't negatively affect the quality of our education ... did i make a mistake? am i getting jipped? my calculations show that even if i manage to claim CA residency for my 2nd year, it's still more expensive .. i thought it'd be manageable or at least worth it to be in SF .. now i'm just concerned that i'm going to have a shoddy experience ..

this past week has been stressful talking to the registrar, financial aid office, and the directors .. all back and forth, back and forth .. is this what it's going to be like for the next 4 yrs? having a problem or an issue and being shuffled back and forth between people who don't have any answers .. what was the term .. TURFing?

i just want to go to medical school yet i've been spending a good amount of time reading about politics in CA .. i'm not even a fan of politics.

for you out-of-staters interested in CA schools, do your homework first .. i just didn't have enough time to do mine. :/

//end rant.

keeping positive//
oh, california ...

 

[Pinkertinkle]

With California's financial situation, i wouldn't be surprised if that figure goes up to the point where in state is same as privates and out of state is just outrageous. My tuition freshman year at this UC was 1800 a semester, now my senior year is going to cost 3300.

 

[Medikit]

It's a good thing for the state of California. Sorry, though 🙁. We've been spending like there's no tomorrow and now the government is finally making the cuts it needs to make. Hopefully if we ever balance the budget and businesses take off again (which it appears they are doing) the tuition can go back down.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

It's a good thing for the state of California. Sorry, though 🙁. We've been spending like there's no tomorrow and now the government is finally making the cuts it needs to make. Hopefully if we ever balance the budget and businesses take off again (which it appears they are doing) the tuition can go back down.

Ah, like bridge tolls, tuition will never go back down, the best we can hope for is for it to go up slower.

 

[bkmonkey]

Funny how things never seem to go down...

 

[mentoz]

With California's financial situation, i wouldn't be surprised if that figure goes up to the point where in state is same as privates and out of state is just outrageous. My tuition freshman year at this UC was 1800 a semester, now my senior year is going to cost 3300.

private would've been cheaper for me .. only b/c financial aid packages are better with private schools .. so essentially, it seems that some private schools can be the more affordable way to go. how the tables have turned.

 

[mentoz]

It's a good thing for the state of California. Sorry, though 🙁. We've been spending like there's no tomorrow and now the government is finally making the cuts it needs to make. Hopefully if we ever balance the budget and businesses take off again (which it appears they are doing) the tuition can go back down.

i guess you gotta do what you gotta do .. and ultimately i'll be able to pay off these debts .. my only concern is the decline of the quality of education in california :/

we should just steal from the celebrities 🙂<

 

[Harps]

private would've been cheaper for me .. only b/c financial aid packages are better with private schools .. so essentially, it seems that some private schools can be the more affordable way to go. how the tables have turned.

One of the reasons UCSF tried very hard to recruit students this year!!

-Harps

 

[Medikit]

Funny how things never seem to go down...

True 🙁

OMG I just realized this means less competition at UCs. I need to call up all the major networks, this should hit the 24/7 news.

 

[mentoz]

One of the reasons UCSF tried very hard to recruit students this year!!

-Harps

were they just trying to recruit in-staters? b/c i didn't feel like they were trying to recruit me .. they more or less frustrated me ..

 

[kokonut]

I don't think that UCSF went out of their way to recruit people this year. At least, it didn't seem like they were making a particularly special effort that was different from other schools. Historically, they have one of the two or three lowest rejection rates from accepted students in the country ... I can't imagine that would change incredibly much from the tuition hikes, especially since for many students it is still cheaper. I think San Francisco alone gives them a huge selling point over almost any other top school.

Also, when I was reading up on UCSF, there were multiple people on SDN who had done a lot of research into the school and found that, because UCSF does get a ton of funding from the state that private schools don't have access to, they still have more money than most medical schools. So they were reassuring that even with budget cuts, you shouldn't worry too much about that. (at least, that the quality of the education will suffer much)

One thing I don't have a response to is the bureaucracy issue. I think that the bureaucracy is probably inherent to it being a UC, and something that you should probably get used to. At the very least, try to stay positive until you actually start there! I'm sure it will be much better than whatever you're imagining right now ...

 

[Legend123]

We will be in good hands in UCSF. A small price to pay for the great future rewards.... 😎

 

[LoneCoyote]

It's a good thing for the state of California. Sorry, though 🙁. We've been spending like there's no tomorrow and now the government is finally making the cuts it needs to make. Hopefully if we ever balance the budget and businesses take off again (which it appears they are doing) the tuition can go back down.

Good luck on balancing the budget... last time I checked Arnold's new budget leaves us $10 billion in debt to start the next fiscal year. I doubt it's ever going down, but if the economy picks up maybe it won't go up as steeply. It's always easier politically to raise professional tuition than it is to raise undergrad tuition, so I think we'll be the first targets of any increases.

To the OP... take it from someone who is lookling at the Capitol as I type this.... Sacramento is incredibly dysfunctional and it is really hard to predict what will happen in the coming years. One thing that can be said for the new governor is that he is much more bi-partisian in his approach so maybe that will help. I wouldn't hold my breath though 😡

 

[mentoz]

We will be in good hands in UCSF. A small price to pay for the great future rewards.... 😎

you know, that's what i told myself .. dealing with the inherent bureaucracy of a UC, waiting longer than usual to get answers (which by the way, i've gotten the answers i was looking for, although it took me a long time and 5 people later ... but they did not fail to give me the answers as long as i asked them multiple times, rewording my questions to make it more clear .. then having to do more research in order to call back and reword my questions again to make them even clearer .. i call this process "building character and patience" 🙂 .. )

the other price is an actual price tag .. UCSF would remain slightly more expensive (between 35K-55K ONLY if i get residency my 2nd yr and on the condition that i don't lose my residency if i do research outside of CA for a year) .. i was getting frustrated that i would have to be very particular and cautious in my scholarly pursuits to avoid violating any terms of meeting and maintaining my CA residency ..

i understood that UCSF is a great school, but only just as great as any other school i've looked at .. and i decided to pay my price to live in SF in my early 20s .. after i made my decision, i started second-guessing .. i wondered about how much time i'd actually have to spend enjoying SF (since i'll be doing a lot of research and other projects while i'm there, originally being an mstp app) .. and if i'd have the money to do things that i enjoy doing there .. if you took away the factor of location, i wouldn't have chosen this school .. ppl have told me to choose based on the school, since ultimately you're there to be a medical student .. pick the school that'll provide you with all the opportunities you'd take advantage of .. i'm not saying that UCSF won't provide them .. i just think i perhaps became delusional with my vision of life in medical school when i chose for "happiness" ...

obviously i haven't started, and this is speculation .. but i just wanted to voice my concerns .. and being an out-of-stater, a minority, my concerns are greater than most ppl at any UC ...

 

[mentoz]

Good luck on balancing the budget... last time I checked Arnold's new budget leaves us $10 billion in debt to start the next fiscal year. I doubt it's ever going down, but if the economy picks up maybe it won't go up as steeply. It's always easier politically to raise professional tuition than it is to raise undergrad tuition, so I think we'll be the first targets of any increases.

To the OP... take it from someone who is lookling at the Capitol as I type this.... Sacramento is incredibly dysfunctional and it is really hard to predict what will happen in the coming years. One thing that can be said for the new governor is that he is much more bi-partisian in his approach so maybe that will help. I wouldn't hold my breath though 😡

i wonder how this will affect the professional UCs in the next 10 years .. do you think it may drive away good faculty as it may drive away highly qualified out-of-staters?