MY choices are:
CU Boulder
UC Santa Barbara
TCU
UC Irvine
UC Santa Cruz
Tuition doesn’t matter very much. I’m more of a mountain and colder weather person than beach, but I want to put education before environment. Will be majoring in economics. Which of these is the best choice?
CU Boulder screams mountains and colder weather to me, but can you afford it?
Do you want more math in your economics courses (e.g. for preparing for PhD study in economics)?
If so, UCSC uses multivariable calculus in its intermediate economics courses (both the regular version 100A-100B and math-intensive version 100M-100N), and UCI offers a version of intermediate economics using multivariable calculus (105A-105B-105C).
Also, if you want to prepare for a PhD in economics, additional advanced math and statistics is desirable (e.g. real analysis, calculus-based probability theory, etc.).
While the UC’s are great schools - I recommend Boulder, in the end you want to be where you are happy.
One of my cousins goes to Boulder and I’ve met some of his Econ friends and they seem to enjoy it and have great internships and opportunities.