<p>CA_girl,</p>
<p>Go for UCSD. Trust me. In the long run, the name will stand out better both in Japan and the US. You can always go to ICU through EAP anyway. But seriously consider the fact that if you ever come back to the US, your ICU degree will not carry nearly as well as a UC degree.</p>
<p>This was advice given to me by a gentleman by the name of Weston Konishi, of the Mike Mansfield Foundation. Although he later found employment in Washington, he lamented that the time spent getting both his BA and MA at ICU could have been better spent getting an American degree.</p>
<p>Unless it's one of the Tokyo 6, or maybe Kyodai, it really means squat outside of Japan. And believe me, I considered doing an MA here.</p>