We’re in the Northeast, but my high school junior daughter has expressed an interest in going to college in California. She’d also prefer to be in, or near, a city. (So, she also likes NYC and Chicago, but has a little bit less interest in Boston) We’re looking at visiting California in March because it’s probably nicer than Evanston, IL and Ann Arbor, MI that time of year.
So, I have a few questions:
Is visiting UCLA and USC feasible to do in one day? Google maps have them fairly close, but I’d need to look into the timing of admissions presentations/campus tours to see if its do-able in a day.
Is visiting Pepperdine then UCSB also feasible in one day?
Any hidden gems I may be missing? (A boy from her high school is at Chapman, but I’m not sure she’s that interested)
She also likes UCSD because they had an impressive presentation at her high school’s college fair a few months ago. (UCLA and USC were also there, but I don’t think she had time to speak with USC and only had a limited time with UCLA)
We visited a few excellent liberal arts schools in New England, but now that she has, I think she would prefer a mid-sized or large school over a Pomona or any of the other Claremont colleges.
My thinking was this:
Monday - UCLA and USC (if feasible)
Tuesday - Pepperdine and UCSB (if feasible)
Wednesday - day to relax/drive
Thursday - UC-Irvine
Friday - UCSD
We have an old neighbor from Connecticut whose son is a freshman at UCLA, but 19 year old boys aren’t always the most forthcoming with information other than saying that they like the school.
UCSB is somewhat the outlier in the schools since it’s more of a college-town university as opposed to being ingrained in a big city. Also, it’s pretty far from Pepperdine, probably at least a 1.5 hour drive depending on the time of day. If those schools are your choices, I would allocate UCSB in its own separate day and combine either Pepperdine with UCLA, or leave it alone as a separate day.
Also, would you be doing official campus tours or self-guided tours? The campus tours are always right in the middle of the day which may make combos hard to do. Also, you should be cognizant of when the spring breaks are for each school on your list. You probably want to visit when school is in session to get a better feel for things, as opposed to just looking at the school without people in it. Especially in the case of UCSD, which has pretty outdated architecture IMO.
The list looks doable. For Tuesday, I would drive to UCSB in the morning and hit Pepperdine in the afternoon. Maybe stay in Santa Monica that night, have dinner at Maestro’s Ocean Club or Nobu In Malibu and drive to UC Irvine in the morning. Remember, during the weekday you will experience lots of traffic during commute hours so plan accordingly.
I would not visit Chapman as it’s a big step down from most of the other colleges on your list. IMO, not worth the $$.
Lastly, you might get some rain in March which could slow down your schedule a little?
Good luck, you have some great colleges on the list.
FWIW we found the visits to be somewhat “intense.” On our spring break visit, we planned to do LMU and UCLA in the same day and ended up changing plans at the last minute after completing one of the formal tours. We were rather “drained” from the visits. We actually did do UCSB (formal tour) and Pepperdine (walked around - no tour) the same day, which is do-able, if you get the first appointment at UCSB. I suppose everyone has a unique experience, however, we found these visits to be unexpectedly draining; not in a bad way - just tiring. Again - sharing our (somewhat unexpected) reactions FWIW.
@CaMom13 Thanks - I was thinking more along the lines of times for college admissions presentations and campus tours. They’re usually at set times each day - i.e., Admissions presentation from 9am to 9:50am, then Campus Tour from 10am to noon,
From there, if we had to drive 90 minutes to UCSB, we’d get there around 1:30pm, or 2:00pm if we stop for a quick lunch. It might be tight if the last admissions presentation of the day is 2pm or 2:30pm.
Spring breaks for all the UCs mentioned is last week of March. USC is Mar 10-17, and Pepperdine’s is end of Feb (depending on the school, they all have different schedules).
IMO a very thorough self-tour including checking out dorms, classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, special buildings and neighborhoods could take easily take 3-4+ hours. All of the campuses mentioned are large campuses. UCLA/USC or UCLA/Pepperdine is doable. Other combos, I’d think you would want to just do one in a day, but that’s just me.
@ProfessorPlum168 thanks - did not realize that UCSD has dated architecture - it’s one of those things one might miss in brochures and with online virtual tours.
I saw online that USC just completed a large campus expansion as well, but the father of the kid who is at UCLA said that when they went to LA a few years back, they thought USC looked dated and drab compared to UCLA.
I think my daughter is fine with a smaller city like Santa Barbara as well, plus it is close to LA. (She likes the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor is basically just a big college town.)
I’ll double check on spring breaks for the schools, but I did a cursory check and they are offering formal campus tours and admissions presentations the week we were looking to visit.
@CaMom13 - also, while I’d love for her to visit Pomona, both her and my wife would prefer more of a mid sized or large school. The new head of the guidance office at her high school was previously at Pomona and Occidental, so she’d maybe have a shot. (I went to a large state school back in the dark ages, so I’ve been fascinated by small liberal arts colleges over the past year or so in regards to my daughter)
@NewJeffCT yeah a lot of the buildings are relics from the 50s and 60’s. However, to counteract that, it’s only a mile to the beach and a short drive to beautiful La Jolla. Also, some of the buildings at UCSB and UCLA aren’t so fantastic either, in a similar vein to UCSD.
I hope that you dont need, or hope to get FA, because all of the UC’s charge OOS students full tuition.And the cost of renting an appt in Calif, + food, should your DD decide she wants to live off campus during her Jr/ Sr years, is about $2000/ month.
We had a similar spring break last year with 1 campus each day for 5 days: Cal Poly, UCSB (with a drive through Pepperdine), UCLA, UC-Irvine, Pomona. We stayed in Hollywood for 3 days and took drives to Irvine and Pomona from there.
Cal Poly is quite a bit further north, and a good school. It’s in a small town so that doesn’t really fit, but it’s a spectacular location with mountains and nearby coast. We saw a number of the same people on the tours.
Remember that the Claremont schools are all together, giving a bigger pool for class offerings, socially, and for things like clubs. So they have the benefits of a LAC with the benefits of a mid sized school as well.
Pomona is a tough admit, though. Not sure of her stats or interests.
FYI, you cannot walk from campus into Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is a beautiful town, but it’s not integrated to the UCSB campus, like Ann Arbor and UMich. Goleta is a couple miles away. Isla Vista is right next door to UCSB, but it’s no Ann Arbor.
But UCSB is warm or warm-ish and right on the beach.
The Claremont Consortium of schools really does make each school “larger” physically and socially. Oxy is really small so maybe cross that off. If she likes U-Mich and Ann Arbor, UCSB is a must-see.
Just in case you don’t know… UCLA and USC are local rivals and feeling runs strong, so don’t trust a UCLA parent’s judgement on USC… or vice versa.
Regarding UCSD campus, some like it, some hate it. D20 did a summer program there this year and the campus is a throwback to the 70’s (think large, grey, concrete bldgs). She didn’t love it even though La Jolla and San Diego are great cities. In addition, UCSD is big in STEM majors but might not be a good fit for say a humanities or business major, for example.
hi, we live in the Bay Area and did this last Spring Break, too. It was kind of exhausting but totally doable. Here is what we did (we drove down from the Bay Area and then worked our way up from San Diego).
Day 1 La Jolla hang at the beach right near our hotel and drive around the campus
Day 2 UCSD tour at 1 PM and then hang out at the pool/beach
Day 3 up early and drive to LA. We didn’t think we’d love USC so we just did an informal pop by but ended up joining a tour and really liking the school.
Day 4 UCLA tour (for what it’s worth, I do think you could do UCLA in the AM and USC in the afternoon or vice versa. You’ll be tired, but you’ll be tired anyway), then drive to Santa Barbara
Day 5 UCSB tour in the AM, then to beach to hang out
Day 6 early drive to Cal Poly and 1 PM tour at Cal Poly then drive back home to Bay Area
Since you are OOS, I might add Cal Poly from a cost POV. And it really is a good school and a totally charming town.
regarding what @socaldad2002 said about some hating, some liking the UCSD campus, I whole heartedly agree. I attended UCSD in 1988 and HATED it the the vibe on the campus. It fell like there was no “there” there. I had a palpable lonely feeling while there that unbelievably came right back when touring with my D19. She is totally different from me and loves the beach and STEM, but did get what I meant finally. I think it’s so good to go look at schools when you can.
