Hi! I’m having quite a bit of trouble deciding between these three colleges, and I’d like to get some input from other students from there/people with experiences from them. I’ll leave a profile of myself below followed by my current thoughts on the colleges.
Current Major/Interest: Ecology (Marine specifically but I went with Ecology to go a bit broader), slightly interested in dual majoring in EnviroSci as well
Future Plans: Potentially grad school, for certain a career in research
General Profile: I’m looking for a college that has strong programs in Ecology and will give me a good education while still giving me time to have a social life in some form. Specifically, I’d like somewhere where I’ll have a good, large pool of friends who are willing to go out and get active as well as a local area that enables socializing. I can usually work well with difficult classes well and am willing to bend over backwards to learn about my major. The biggest problem I face is health issues; I have a stress-triggered disease that makes me wary of places like Berkeley and I want to know more about the profiles of each school. I’m also into music (I play the tuba and want to join an orchestra in college) but it’s not a major influence on my decision.
Current Thoughts on UCSD/UCB/USC
UCSD seems to be a powerhouse in science and research. Their partnership with the Scripps Oceanographic Institute makes it a huge interest of mine thanks to the strength of said institute in the marine sciences. I received a Regents scholarship and have been accepted to Muir College, making it the perfect balance of difficulty and opportunity. However, the social scene is deeply concerning to me and I’m starting to waver on exactly HOW good UCSD Ecology/education is in general.
UCB is easily the strongest of these three schools academics-wise and is of high interest to me because of this. Social scene and music are acceptable based on what I’ve seen from my sister’s experience there. However, the issue of stress and competition is something I’m keeping in mind. Research will be hard to come by and keeping As there will be difficult. I also REALLY messed up and applied in Environmental Science instead of Ecology/Integrated Bio, so I will need to change majors when I get there.
USC has the best social scene of the three by far. Unfortunately, I hate frats and from what I’ve heard will not get along with the students there (are there really that many insufferable, rich, and creepy frat guys?). Their academics are also not as huge as the other two options from what I can tell, but their music is great and potential boosts to graduate and post-graduate opportunities are something that might be worth considering, although I don’t think that’s as heavily present in their sciences. I’m not fond of it but am willing to keep it in mind.
Please excuse the long post/weird formatting, I’m just making sure I’m not being vague about my situation so nobody has to guess and fill in the blanks in my profile freely.