What can I do about college?

[Lauren]

I'm a high school senior with a 3.72 GPA (and rising) and a 2000 SAT score. Not the hottest stats but it's alright. I live in Oregon but I'm really interested in going to a California college (I have a lot of family there). Here are some of my questions:

I applied for some pretty good schools, still awaiting acceptances/rejections, but I'm not sure I applied for the best ones (Cali colleges include USC, UC Davis, UCI, CSU Fullerton, possibly Chapman). I feel like I could've looked for better colleges though... I have this nagging feeling I should've just tried for UCLA and Berkeley, though my stats aren't very promising. I mean, should I be fine with what I applied for? Are there any other schools you think I could/should apply for? Or should I think about going to community college and then reapplying, get my grades up for better schools? The problem with that is I'm very, very ready to get out of the house and be independent, and the little town I'm in now is small and boring. I'd probably get depressed if I stayed here longer...

I don't know, I'm just really confused. Any form of advice would be great. If it helps, I'm not sure what I want to major in, so I'm just focusing on finding good all-around schools (with a good arts/music program and hopefully film program).
Edit: I also applied for U of O here in Oregon (safe school, less money). Not a top school for me, but I feel like I'll have to go there if Cali is too expensive.
Ah, I guess I should've added that, sorry. Affordability another big concern for me. I had a REALLY high EFC according to FAFSA -- over $100,000 -- so I can't depend on a lot of aid. Plus, my parents are paying hardly anything despite their incomes. It's hard since I have two younger siblings who are close in age to me... I'm trying to apply for scholarships. Not very lucky so far.
Jules -- Thanks for the info! I have considered living with a relative and attending community college there, so I'll look more into it. Yes, I don't plan on majoring in arts or music, though I've considered it for a minor. I just want to have access to a good program (music is huge for me). I'm interested in psychology, religion, writing/journalism, even politics... just can't decide on something lol.

[Jules]

It depends. How much money has your parents saved up for college.

Did you fill out your FAFSA yet? you should have done that already. did it say anything?

where you go to school depends alot on what you can afford. you can add that additional info and add it

it seems like you applied to a lot of schools in orange county. i would say that it is not good to spend money on an arts degree if you do not have a lot of money and do not get grants. because it will be difficult to pay off loans if you get a degree in the arts, so you should go to community college first in that case. Have you considered any other degrees?

if go to community college in california for the first two years then you may qualify for california in state tuition for the last two years of school if you follow their other requirements. You could do this by getting a job and going to school and maybe paying a low rent and living in a relatives home. rent in california is expensive. here are two links about qualifying for in state tuition. i do not know anyone who has done this, so I do not know how hard it is to do this.
https://students.ucsd.edu/finances/fees/...teria.html
https://www.google.com/#q=how+to+qualify...california

tuition for an out of state student is higher at community college too, but not that much higher. it is still pretty cheap and a good option in my opinion. OCC, a community college has high rates for transfer students. and alot of people i know went to the community college in fullerton before they went to CSUF to save money.

dont go to USC if you do not have the money. They have a good film program but if you are not rich or do not get a scholarships to pay for the whole thing, then do not go there. my aunt went there for acting (it is really hard to get into, they only select a handful of people each year) but it took her 30 years to pay off her tuition and could not buy a house because she had so much debt from going to school. you will get accepted there becuase it is not that difficult to get accepted there.

you could probably get into SDSU. and you could get into Northrigde and CSULB which are in LA county, which is good because you can have a lot of internships in LA. but you should only go there if you get full grants because you still have to spend a lot of money on rent. Rent will be more expensive then school.

living in california and going to community college is a good idea if you want to establish residency. join clubs, they are a good way to make friends.

you should also do 2-3 internships if you do go with an arts degree. you will need to network and meet people and have things on your resume so you can be competitive and get a job. an arts degree job usually does not pay well. look through these internships
http://www.internships.com/search/posts?...eles%2C+CA

chapman is known for being a good school for film. but they are a private school, so the tuition is not worth it to go there. film jobs usually do not pay that much. check out the other schools that i mentioned on their facebook and twitter to learn more about them. you can also read about programs that they have in their school newspaper.

here are students who get into UCD
http://admissions.ucdavis.edu/profile/
students who get into SDSU
"SDSU attracts highly qualified students each year. For fall 2013 admitted freshmen, the averages were:
3.75 high school GPA
25 ACT (not including writing)
1152 SAT reasoning (critical reading and math)"
http://arweb.sdsu.edu/es/admissions/fres...index.html
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In my biased opinion, I think you should go to community college in California first if you do not get grants because school is just so expensive. You should still consider all the UCs if you do that. Sometimes UCs are not the best option though. A girl I interned with at a Congressmans campain office went to SDSU even though she got into a bunch of UCs. SDSU is a good price for the quality of education that you get. Her dad used to be a congressman so she had a lot of connections and she even flew to florida to work at a convention for a week and flew back, she didn't even have to pay for the trip. So, sometimes its more about who you know. Internships are a great way to network and meet people. You should watch youtube videos about people who went to different schools and follow about 10 schools on twitter and facebook and read the articles that they link.

Keep your options open because a lot of the majors you mentioned are not that employable. But if you try hard and stay connected and meet people, then things may go well for you. You should also look into other more employable majors too, for now. Seriously get internships. They are a great way to figure out what you are interested in, and join clubs on campus. You should also consider majors that you "think" that you are not interested in. In high school I was not interested in technology or science much, now I really wish that I was a computer science major. Would never have guessed that I would be interested in that, and they make a lot of money too. I read the news to learn about the real world and to learn about what I was interested in.