<p>I'm a CA native from Orange County, CA. Yep, The OC. Since I have friends who are currently students at UCSD, Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and most of the others, I'd like to relate what they have told me about their UC experiences....and why I have applied RD to Dartmouth and several other Ivy League schools.</p>
<ol>
<li>At the UCs, many classes are huge. Very little personal attention.</li>
<li>Many lower level classes are taught by grad students, many of whom have yet to master the english language and cannot pronounce words clearly. Multi-variable Calc is going to be hard enough without fighting to understand what's coming out of the teacher's mouth in a large lecture hall.</li>
<li>There's way too much partying. There are a lot of second-rate students--just look at the SAT spreads--who don't know why they are in college....except to drink, play cards and goof off. The graduation rate at most UCs is miserable because the overall quality of the students is lower, much lower compared to Ivy schools. </li>
<li>Residence Halls are in short supply. After freshman year, there is no guaranteed housing. I might want to live off campus with friends, but I don't want to be pushed out. I'd rather have the choice.</li>
<li>For me, with normal amounts of financial aid, the Ivy League schools are cost competitive with the UCs--about $20,000 a year.</li>
<li>I could go on...but I'll stop for now except to say that my father has met Berkeley professors who discouraged their own kids from applying to Berkeley for the very reasons I've mentioned. I know kids at UCSD who would NEVER go to UCSD if they could do it over again. And don't get me started on UC Santa Cruz.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>To close, I'm sure an exceptional student can get a great education at any school...but why load yourself down with the problems intrinsic to mammoth public universities if you don't have to?</p>