California/West Coast schools for sociology/neuroscience?

State Forums
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<p>Hi, my daughter is a junior and trying to narrow down her college search. We live in the SF Bay Area and she thinks she would rather stay in CA or at least the West Coast, though I suppose a really amazingly good fit would tempt her farther away.</p>

<p>Her stats are: GPA 4.15 weighted, 3.97 unweighted (basically all A's with one B freshman year in Algebra II); she is at a school that offers IB classes but she has chosen not to pursue the IB diploma; otherwise she is taking what would probably be considered the most rigorous course schedule. </p>

<p>SAT: 670 math, 710 CR, 710 writing. </p>

<p>Extracurriculars: ballet 3x week for basically her whole life; ballet summer intensive programs; has performed in a professional Nutcracker (as a child dancer) three times; two years of a 1 hour/week job assisting with ballet classes. </p>

<p>She thinks she would like to major in sociology or something sociology-related that maybe has elements of cognitive neuroscience or behavioral science. She says she's interested in people and why they behave the way they do, but she doesn't want to have to deal with people personally (no future as a therapist!). She's also passionate about LGBT rights; I think she may end up working in a policy field. She's mentioned that she might think about law school some day (her father and I are both lawyers).</p>

<p>We toured UC Davis this week, and although it's a lovely campus, I can't help thinking that maybe a smaller school with a strong liberal and LGBT culture might be better for her. But she likes the idea of a big university with lots of interesting classes and other opportunities. In general she doesn't have strong opinions on any colleges or aspects of her college search, other than that she definitely doesn't want a school with a religious or conservative atmosphere.</p>

<p>Sorry this is so long! Thanks for any suggestions!</p>

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<p><a href=“UC Santa Barbara General Catalog - Sociology”>UC Santa Barbara General Catalog - Sociology;

<p><a href=“UCSB Scientists Report ‘New Beginning' in...”>http://neurosciencestuff.■■■■■■■■■■/post/34905410352/ucsb-scientists-report-new-beginning-in-split-brain&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I agree with her about big colleges having more opportunities, so I don’t know that much about LACs. There are a lot of people here who do know, though, so maybe they will chime in.</p>

<p>I do know that at UCSB More than half of graduating seniors collaborate with faculty members on original research or creative projects. It is one of the good things about being an UNDERGRADUATE in a university with more focus on undergraduate education than most research universities have.</p>

<p>I also don’t know much about specific LGBT culture at universities, apart from just students in general, so someone else would have to help with that aspect. I’m not really sure what you are looking for on that point.</p>

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<p>Meh, missed the time period for editing, but you might be interested in this, as well. <a href=“http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/0401/profile.html”>http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/0401/profile.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;