<p>Suggestions on where to go would be nice - between Cal (accepted to College of Engineering - doesn't say major though... I applied to Bioengineering), UCLA (Materials Engineering), UCSD (Bioengineering)</p>
<p>My ultimate goal is to either go to business or law school at Stanford for graduate studies.</p>
<p>Cal:
Pros - Prestige, incredible engineering programs, basically academics for me
Cons - Don't really like the environment (the people I talked to while visiting there seemed a little snotty), social scene is probably weaker than at UCLA, I've heard its VERY difficult to get a 3.8+ in engineering which would hurt my business/law school chances a lot.</p>
<p>UCLA:
Pros - Visited twice and love the environment, the school feels very lively, love the city of LA, professors and students seemed more friendly and willing to help than at either Cal or UCSD, probably a little less competitive in engineering which would help me get a better GPA for business/law school
Cons - Weak Materials Engineering program, might have less job prospects?</p>
<p>UCSD:
Pros: #3 Bioengineering program, I like the environment here better than Cal's but worse than UCLA's, good city for recreation
Cons: Less prestige, known to be socially dead, same problem with Cal (3.8+ might be incredibly difficult to get as bioengineering is basically THE major at UCSD), no division I football team T_T</p>
<p>These are my honest thoughts and pleas for suggestions. Please don't flame me for saying anything bad/wrong about Cal :)</p>
<p>Just the fact that its Materials Engineering program is sooo weak. It's not even ranked whereas SD's bioengineering is #3 while Cal's bioengineering is #8-ish?</p>
<p>Won't graduating from such a weak program hurt my job prospects? Or does it not matter since my final degree will be in either Business or Law?</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about all that ranking stuff, especially if your ultimate goal is grad school. UCLA is famous, after all. People will take a degree from UCLA seriously, regardless of the field. </p>
<p>Wait...sorry if this is a dumb question, because I have absolutely no knowledge of how going to law or business school works, but if you want to do either of those, why do you want to do engineering as an undergrad? Wouldn't you want to do more humanities-oriented courses to prepare for law or business?</p>
<p>But in any case, since it seems your true goal is business/law school, I would make getting there your top priority. Especially if you're dreaming big (Stanford). After that, I would say make the atmosphere your second priority. As long as you're on track for what you want to do, I would just make sure you're in a place that you like, and for you, it seems like you like UCLA.</p>
<p>golden130, I'd like to do engineering as an undergrad to build a background for myself as I feel business or law themselves will be too commonplace in the future (meaning less job prospects).</p>
<p>My deepest concern is with the HUGE difference in program rankings; however, it sounds like the general consensus is that rankings don't matter - even in my situation where I'll most likely need to get a job first after my undergraduate studies before applying to business school?</p>