I made my decision which school I am going to go. From Fall on I will be attending University of California Santa Barbara. Although UCLA also accepted me, but I decided I don’t want to live in that city. UC Santa Cruz was also ready to take me, but I wanted a change of scenery. UCSan Diego didn’t accept me. They never sent me an official reason so I called them up. It turns out that based on my application they believe I have already a BA and they don’t want to give second one. That’s fine with me, because I wouldn’t want to go there anyway. Officially there are 9 steps to enrollment:
- “Meet the conditions of Admission.” – This meant that I had to finish the courses I was taking at Cabrillo with a good grade. Although I haven’t seen my grades, but I have no doubt that they are As. OK, this sounded cocky, but in this case it was a well founded statement.
- “Check cost of attendance and financial aid status, if applicable.” – I already knew that the school estimated that it takes 20,800 a year to go there. Beside the tuition fee this includes the price of textbooks, health insurance, off-campus housing, food, transportation and personal costs. The Financial Aid office required me to provide some documents. One of them was the letter from the Selective Service stating that I registered with them. I have been asking them for three months to send me the letter confirming that I didn’t have to. Finally they did on the last day of May, so I sent it over to UCSB. They also asked me for proof of citizenship. Because I am not allowed to copy my Naturalization Certificate I sent them a copy of my passport. And now I am awaiting what kind of aid they will offer me: grants, scholarships, subsidized and/or unsubsidized loans. They acknowledged receiving my papers on June 4 and commented that it takes 2-3 weeks to make their offer to me. Any day now.
- “Sign and return your Statement of Intent to Register (SIR).” – I did it a week before the deadline of June 1. Along with the $100 non-refundable fee they asked for.
- “Visit Housing website to complete the housing process.” – As a transfer student I don’t get guaranteed on-campus housing. However I entered a lottery and won it. Hooray. Then they informed me that my winning ticket entitles me to share a room for $00/month with someone. I declined for at least these 5 reasons: – I feel too old to share a room. I want my own. – I’d need to sell all my kitchen things, beside my furniture. – The rooms are rather small. Even if I keep nothing else but my CDs, books and clothes, wouldn’t fit in. – I am hoping I can find a comparatively cheaper off campus. I mean a room on my own for 5-600 . – I am guessing that living in a dorm would be loud. Nowadays I prefer a more quiet lifestyles. (Interspersed with the occasional loud nights.) Thus I am and will be searching for an apartment. I have my methods and hopes, but more on those at a later time.
- “Visit Registrar website to complete the Statement of Legal Residence (SLR).” Did that.
- “Complete and submit the Hepatitis B form and if applicable, a Health Insurance Waiver Request.” – I knew about Hep B requirement in advance and also knew that it takes 3 shots, within a period of 6 months. So I started it early and got the first two. Then I realized that this is required only for people under the age of 19. Oh well, it won’t hurt me that I am vaccinated against it. And no, thank you, I don’t want to waive the school provided health insurance. It will serve me just fine.
- “Submit your official transcripts and test scores.” – I arranged my high school test scores to be sent from Hungary. (Thanks Mom.) I also filled out the form at Cabrillo College to ensure tat they will send my final transcripts to UCSB. I hope that they will send it in the allocated timeslot, before July 15. I can and do check at UCSB website whether they got it already or not. Not yet.
- “Take placement exams and sign up for Summer Orientation.” – I don’t need to take any exams. I got a nice brochure about the Summer Orientation. However its wording was tricky as it appeared that this is something I HAVE to take. It took me reading the fine print to realize that’s not the case. The only indication of this was, a footnote, that only 65% of students do. It would have been OK for me to take this, however the only dates offered were in the middle of the summer. While I am in Hungary.
- “Register and pay fees.” – Will do early September. I already know that the earliest time I can register for my classes is at 2.30 PM on September 3. I really hope I can sign up for all 4 pre-sociology classes, to get them over with.