First of all, I just want to acknowledge how wonderful of a resource this platform has been. CollegeConfidental has helped me so much navigate the college admissions process. In particular, I want to give a shoutout to @Gumbymom (you’re the real MVP 
). I have a medical condition and that requires me to stay near an area with good medical facilities. However, the quality of major and opportunities to get internships.jobs is also very important.
Accept:
UC Santa Barbara (for Econ/Accounting but planning to change to Financial Mathematics at some point)
UC Davis (Managerial Econ)
UC Santa Cruz (Business Econ Management)
UC Riverside (Pre-Business Administration)
SJSU (Business Administration)
Cal Poly SLO (Business Administration)
(I still can’t believe I got in all these colleges with 0 AP’s! Which goes on to show that PIQ’s matter)
Waitlist:
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
Now that the decisions process is done and over with, I need to spend the next month or so examining the pros and cons of each college. The two most important factors I am considering are:
- Quality of the academic program
- Proximity to a major city/hospital
I need advice on what I should consider during this process. Every school has its pros and cons, so I can’t really decide. Though my heart says UC Santa Barbara, it is not the best practical option. This is one of the most important decisions in life, and I wanna make sure I don’t screw up!!
Thank you!!
there’s not a school on your list that could be characterized as screwing up. Not sure what kind of medial access you need but, you can probably find it in Santa Barbara - so, confirm that then follow your heart.
Congrats!
I think UCR and SJSU are closer to major medical facilities. UCSB, UCSC and UCD have 1-2 hospitals in town but I’m not sure of their specialties and your medical condition. UCD has a medical school but it is located in Sacramento (20-30 min away). SLO is relatively remote.
Will you continue with your current medical insurance or will you use UC SHIP (UC Student Health Insurance Plan)? If you are opting out of UC SHIP, find which medical facilities in these towns take your current medical insurance and what type of co-pay or deductible you will be responsible for.
Interestingly enough, the school that you would think that would be in the big city and close to a hospital (SJSU), really has no hospitals that close, and the one that you would expect to be remote (CPSLO) has one very close by.
I guess the questions are, who is your medical insurance carrier and what kind of medical services is needed? For example, if you have Kaiser, the nearest location from the UCSB campus is almost an hour away.
That is interesting. I did not know that about SJSU.
well, the closest hospital to SJSU is about 5 miles away, around a 15 min drive, which I don’t consider that close. The closest one for UCSB and UCSC is around the same distance, for comparison purposes.
UC-Davis has a hospital about 3 miles away (their school one is 30 min away in Sacramento), and UC-Riverside has a hospital about 1.5 miles away (they have a medical school but I don’t think there’s a hospital associated with the school, I could be wrong though). Cal Poly has a hospital that’s just off the campus, so no more than a mile away.
UC-Irvine and UCSD have hospitals more or less on campus.
@lkg4answers has the probably the best answer regarding your choice campus since it may depend upon your Health insurance and if you need any specialty care that may not be offered around each UC campus. Definitely look into the insurance issue before making a final decision.