Help me decide! lower tier CA schools

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Ok, need some help here. </p>

<p>I've been whittling away at my list of colleges and have come up with the following.</p>

<p>UCR
UCM
CSULB
SDSU
Cal Poly Pomona</p>

<p>Will be a bio/marine bio/aquatic biology major depending. I hear UCR has a really good entomology type program. I also hear tell that it is a school that has a higher percentage of unhappy people.</p>

<p>I visited, of these Pomona, Riverside, and Long Beach. Pomona was interesting. Riverside was a beautiful campus but seemed rather lifeless(only people were some skaters, some of them had dragged a bench onto a stairway and were doing skooter tricks off it), Long Beach was by far the most complete tour and I liked what I saw. Admittantly one thing I like was the idea of walking one mile down to long beach, then a few miles down to Huntington to relax and in my case poke around in the water for stuff. It did remind me a lot of home(Fresno), so that might be part of it. Riverside being a more dry climate would be interesting during spring, but afterwards the land goes dormant. </p>

<p>My parents are leaning towards Riverside it seems saying it is "a good place to study". I'm not just considering academics though. UC Merced has gotten a lot of sales pitches from our school but I don't think it'd be that good for my major interest. One thing that would be important would be internship opportunities.</p>

<p>Especially if you have personal experience, please respond!</p>

2

<p>At SDSU, you can get a BS in bio with marine biology emphasis. Also San Diego has a lot of oceanographic/ marine bio stuff going on. Why not SDSU??</p>

3

<p>Yeah, that school totally slipped my radar. Passed it off as being a "party school" I guess.</p>

<p>Also, the 3 schools I visited the living situation should be convenient.</p>

4

<p>UC Riverside would be the best for academics, but you should decide how important other factors are to you.</p>

5

<p>My D best friend is attending SDSU for marine biology. It was her second choice after getting rejected from UCSB. Remember where ever you go the first two yrs. most all schools req. gen ed core classes So transferring is still anoption later.</p>