Desperately Need Help for College Decision

Ok, I need some serious help with choosing which school to go to. My entire college apps have been a crapshoot so far and I ended up with only 2 choices to choose from, UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz. Even though I had a limited amount of choices, I personally wanted to go to UCSC because I really enjoy the campus and dorms. It’s also ranked higher for Biology which is my intended major. Yet, at UCR I’m being offered both the Chancellor’s Award as well as the Honors Program of which only 200 individuals out of thousands of applicants are accepted. However, I visited the UCR campus and found it to be very small and not particularly to my liking. My original plan was to go to either of them and hopefully be able to transfer out to a better school like UCLA but transferring from UC to UC is a very difficult process. I am torn between which to choose. I understand that with UCR, I have those awards and titles under my belt which would make transferring easier but at the same time, doesn’t guarantee me anything. I am afraid that if I choose UCR I might end up spending 4 entire years there. What do I do???

Net price at each?

I suggest picking the school that you feel most comfortable at as a transfer isn’t guaranteed. Are both schools affordable to you and your family?

@ucbalumnus every UC is about 35k in cost for tuition and living costs. My Cal grant gives me 12k for any UC school. The UCR chancellors award gives me 5k additional per year and Honors gives me extra but only enough to pay the difference between normal dorms and their Honors Dorms. So at UCR it ends up as18k per year and UCSC as 23k per year. But personally money isn’t that much of an issue

@Proudmama2 yes, both are affordable for my family

If you think you’d be unhappy at UCR for 4 years, then definitely go with UCSC. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to transfer out.

Then choose the school you can see yourself at for 4 years.