<p>Here is my dilemma. I was accepted into UCLA for bioengineering and UCSD for bioengineering:pre-med. I ultimately want to do something with biotechnology and something in the bioengineering field. Now, from what i've heard, UCSD is number 3 or something in the nation for bioengineering. UCLA on the other hand is ranked 40th or so. I prefer the UCLA community over UCSD simply because it is more fun, enjoyable, and the community is great. Is this a smart decision to choose ucla over ucsd over the community or will i regret this decision in the future(given that i will fail to find a good job). Furthermore, if i should so choose to change my major from bioegineering to something else like computer science after my sophomore year, how difficult would that be? (i do want to stick with bioengineering but i'm worried that the ranking at UCLA is so low for it). </p>
<p>as long as you can retain a moderately high gpa, you can change majors within engineering pretty easily until you're a junior. about ucla and ucsd.. i'd say ucla just because i'm going to ucla =)</p>
<p>Being a prestige-whore, I would seldom advise someone to disregard the university rankings. However, I would choose UCLA over UCSD because in this case the superior environment and quality of life are more tangible than the long-terms difference between UCLA Bioengineering and UCSD Bioengineering... To elaborate, I wouldn't put too much stock on UCLA Bioengineering being ranked 42nd in the U.S. News and World Report right now, because the program is only three years old and rapidly maturing in terms of enrollment and faculty research. Last year we weren't even ranked, which means that we've been rising by at least 9 positions each year. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if UCLA Bioengineering broke the top 15 in the rankings by the time you graduate, then plateauing among our other top 15 engineering programs (Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, etc.)</p>
<p>In the long run, I predict that UCLA and UCSD will become peer institutions in Bioengineering, since they are already traditionally peer institutions in both the biological sciences and engineering. Allow me to take a page from the optimistic lexicon of CotoDeCasa and venture a prediction on UCLA's future Bioengineering rankings based on our current rate of growth, starting from the department's founding:</p>
<p>Anyways, unfortunately, changing majors within the School of Engineering (e.g. to Computer Science) is a beast to tackle. The GPA requirements are high, and there is a lot of paperwork bureaucracy that has to be filed. Check my "Ask Flopsy: UCLA Engineering" thread, since the issue of changing majors into impacted engineering majors been brought up multiple times there... :rolleyes:</p>
<p>some boat with u are....UCLA OR UCSD bioE
i have chosen to go to UCSD over UCLA b/c UCSD bioE is uncompared to UCLA. Even though UCLA has the better community, sports team, environment, city and food...We or generally we go to college to study not to have fun but i would admit college should be a good experience, its not like UCSD is the hell hole. But i got to admit no one out of the united states what the **** UCSD stands for...</p>
<p>Go to where you actually feel happy. Once you get to school, believe me the last thing on your mind will be some meaningless ranking complied by some guy who's never sat in through your courses. Wherever you go, the subject you are studying will be equally hard, and the competition will be just as tough. I'd recommend picking a place where you'd enjoy your 4-5 years of college more, including the studying (which there will be no shortage of). And for what it's worth, the ranking will go up.</p>
<p>thank you so much guys, especially mcgizzle and flopsy. Yeah i do want to go to ucla because i feel that i will have more fun there. I checked out both la and sd over break and i am blown away by LA's campus. I know i will have fun at LA. So thank you for your inputs guys, i confident of my decision for UCLA now. See you next year guys!</p>
<p>flopsy: your cavalier predictions about UCLA's BioE rankings might be excusable coming from a music or literature major but are very unbecoming to one in Engineering or the Hard Sciences. Yikes!</p>
<p>You do realize I wasn't being serious about that 2003-2010 rankings list from the moment I mentioned "CotoDeCasa", right? Why would I want to actually imitate CotoDeCasa? :rolleyes:</p>