I have narrowed down my options between UC Irvine and Cal State Long Beach for Aerospace Engineering. However, I was not accepted to the major of my choice at UCI and was accepted as an Undeclared major. If I do attend UCI, then I would most likely attempt to switch my major to Aerospace after I complete the prerequisite courses for that major. I have been admitted to Aerospace Engineering at CSULB. I do plan on attending graduate school after I earn my degree and my ultimate goal is a PhD in Aerospace. So I really need help in deciding which university to select.
Believe it or not, my son and I liked CSULB better than UCI. The Long Beach engineering department was very accommodating even though we didn’t have an appointment. You need to visit each school. Long Beach is under-rated and places students in a number of internships.
Long Beach has Boeing on-site (they rent a facility at the university) and they hire interns from the engineering departments. Long Beach also has a lot of ties to the Redondo Beach corporate area with Northrop, General Atomics, Rockwell, Lockheed nearby.
I believe that it is hard to transfer into an engineering major at most UCs. The students are usually getting weeded out of engineering rather than getting into engineering.