I’d recommend Muir as a first choice. The writing requirement is only 2 courses (which is as low as it gets at UCSD). The writing courses in Muir aren’t that bad, and the second course (MCWP 50) is more focused on writing a research paper than analyzing literature, which I preferred. There’s also a handful of different topics in MCWP 50 so you can pick a topic you’re interested in, and then you get a lot of freedom in what you want to write your research paper on. I remember I wrote my paper on the X-Men movies back when I took it and my research was all watching movies and reading about comic books.
The GEs have a decent amount of flexibility if there are certain subjects you would like to avoid, like history. You can choose to take courses in two of the following areas: Humanities, Fine Arts, and Foreign Language. You can take zero classes in humanities, if that’s what you want, but then you have to take a couple of courses in a foreign language and fine art. But if you get a high enough score on the IB test for American history, then you only have to take 1 history course. Another benefit of Muir’s GE’s is that you can take all lower-division courses, which are often easier than upper-division courses. Muir is much closer to the beach than Warren, and if you live in a higher floor in Tioga, you’ll likely get a really nice view of the beach.
Warren would also be a good choice. Warren also only has 2 required writing courses. Engineering majors have reduced GE requirements so need to do 2 area studies (total of 6 courses), instead of 2 programs of concentrations (total of 12 courses), in addition to a couple of other GE requirements (like ethics). You have to choose area studies outside of your field of study (i.e. in a humanity and in a social science), but you can choose to avoid history if you want to. You are, however, required to have 2 upper division courses in each area study (4 total), which may be more difficult or may not be a concern for you if you pick an area you like. Warren is further from the beach than Muir and much less centrally located on campus.
If you’re not a fan of writing or humanities classes, I’d recommend avoiding ERC (which has a five-course writing/humanities sequence MMW and a requirement that you take one upper-division writing class) and Revelle (which also has a five-course writing/humanities sequence HUM).
As for the other colleges, they’re in the middle with regards to writing requirements. Something to consider with Sixth is that there is a Practicum requirement, where you are required to take a hands-on, experiential learning class. I’m sure some studies find this requirement great and good experience, but I knew some students in Sixth who found it to be a burden to schedule in and it often had a bigger time commitment than other courses. It also requires a final project, like a presentation or research paper.
My advice would be take a look at the GE requirements for each college and rank your preferences based on that. In general (very generally), Muir and Warren tend to be more popular, while Revelle (and somtimes ERC) tend to be less popular. Marshall and Sixth tend to be in the middle. But everyone’s different. I’ve had friends that really wanted to be Revelle or ERC. It just depends. Take a look at the GE requirements for yourself to see if it’s something you’re interested in.