I have been accepted into all of these programs (UCSB w/ regents), and am only waiting on a decision from UCB. But considering how difficult admission there is, I decided I should just start thinking about it sooner rather than later. Aside from UCLA, I haven’t visited any of these schools yet. For my goals, I am mostly just focused on getting a good job out of graduation, so help with career stuff and lots of internship opportunities are very important to me.
UCLA - good program, most grads get good jobs out of graduation, no problem with grad school either, good research opportunities, and seems like a nice place to live, the people here seem very outgoing, good environment to learn and live in, but has normal problems w/ big research university (big classes, little individual attention), visited
UCSB - regents which might help a lot with getting classes, as well as a pretty decent $6k / year, good program (though maybe not quite as good as the other schools on the list), the area is beautiful, of course it is a pretty fun school too
Cal Poly - students are really trained for jobs, have little problems obtaining great positions and internships, a bit smaller learning environment compared to the UC’s (smaller class sizes), more focus on undergrad education, the area really appeals to me (even though I have not visited yet), the biggest problems are the difficulties associated w/ changing majors, as well less generally more difficult acceptance into grad school
UCSD - great program (on par w/ UCLA’s), so same ease with finding jobs and grad school, beautiful and a nice place to live, but pretty scared of the idea that it isn’t such a social school, supposedly it is a commuter school for many people
I am not really considering finances (it is basically the same for each school), so given that, what should I consider about each of these schools when choosing one? Also, what should I be looking for on my visits?