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I want to work in public interest, though not necessarily in work that qualifies my for the LRAP (union work or international labor migration work). I got $60k in total scholarships to UCLA (for 3 years). Not as much as I'd like, but the most I got from any school. I got no money at Berkeley. I also just found out a few days ago that I've been wait-listed at NYU.

I love both LA and the Bay. I want to work in California for sure. I could live with my mother in LA, thereby saving another 10k a year by attending UCLA. I've crunched the numbers and I'd be taking out about 187k at Berkeley, and 90k in loans at UCLA. I also got into the public interest program at UCLA and am really excited about their critical race studies program.

Berkeley's LRAP program is better, so if I choose to go into LRAP qualifying work that may offset some of the difference in cost. NYU's program is even better, but cost of living there is crazy high.

Given all this, UCLA makes a hell of a lot of sense, doesn't it? I'm not interested in being a clerk or a judge or a politician or an academic or going into big law. I just want to be an incredibly effective advocate of immigrant workers, and be able to afford a decent standard of living for myself that allows me to someday buy a house and take a vacation every now and then.

Yep, this sounds like a pretty solid case for UCLA. As long as you're okay with living at home.

camelcrema wrote:Yep, this sounds like a pretty solid case for UCLA. As long as you're okay with living at home.

Yeah, that's the big if, isn't it? And the truth is I'm not sure how it'll work out. I've living away from home (3,000 miles away, first when I was LA and my parents were on the east coast, and then we coast swapped) for the last 8 years. But I figure even if things don't work out, it is much easier to find affordable rent in LA than the Bay.

How sure are you about your future path? Are you 100% PI? Really research the LRAP requirements at both schools before you commit. Both should have an LRAP coordinator and maybe see if you can make an appointment to talk about what is covered and what isn't.

UCLA is apparently changing their LRAP up a bit, I was at asd at Ucla a few weeks ago. I don't remember exactly what the changes were but they mentioned trying to improve it/get closer to NYU's. Id give them a call because information on the internet might soon be out of date