Help me Decide: UCSC vs UCM vs Sac State vs SJSU - Political Science

College Search & Selection
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Hello everyone, I’m a current high school senior, US Citizen, and CA resident. I got into Merced, Sacramento State, and San Jose State for political science and psychology for Santa Cruz, but I’m planning on switching to politics if I choose to go there. I was also waitlisted for CSULB for PS but I’m not counting that as an option since it’s just a waitlist.

I am having trouble choosing between the three because there are so many factors to consider, and I also imagined myself getting into UCB or UCI but I was rejected. In the future, I would like to work towards transferring to UCB. After graduating, I want to pursue a career in government service (pretty vague but I don’t have a clear picture as of now) or law, but that’s also a vague path.

The main thing I want to find out is which school has the best political science program overall, as my goal is just to have the best possible education out of these. In addition, I would prefer for the school to have a good psychology program in case I want to change majors and career paths, and a good economics program because I’m leaning towards minoring in that.

Putting financial aid aside for now, the smaller things I want to consider is social life and activities. That’s why I’m not heading straight for Sac State, even if it has many internship opportunities for government, as I heard it’s a “commuter school” as well and I want to be involved with something regarding activism or music on campus.

If there’s anything more I can add for clarity, I’d gladly help. I’m just at a loss for now for which school I should aim my sights on.

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If you really think you want to pursue a future in some form of gov’t service then your clear choice is Sac State due to the opportunities to get involved in the CA gov’t. Personal connections matter a lot in finding entry-level positions in gov’t after college.

I’m sorry it doesn’t deliver the social life you’re hoping for, but them’s the breaks and you have a choice to make. Fun now or focus on the future? Cal States are specifically set up to serve the local community and most are commuter schools. If social life was important you should have applied to Chico and SDSU. Besides even at a commuter school they still have clubs and activities; you can look online to see what’s going on at Sac State, perhaps read the student paper.

As for academics, what would “best pyschology” or “best economics” program mean? You are not a psychologist with a BA in Psych, you are not an economist with a BA in Econ. Psych requires a Masters at least to practice, and economists have a PhD. All the schools you list are similar; you’re going to have somewhat larger classes since these are popular majors, and they use the same or similar books. Sure, an Econ student at Stanford has a leg up on a job at a venture capital company but that’s because they are a Stanford student; a History student from Stanford will also get an interview. Any of the schools you listed can prepare you for grad school; they most important thing is what you do because if you don’t get to know some profs you won’t have strong letters of rec (which are key in admission to top grad programs).

If you decide the social life is key, then UCSC is probably your best bet. Be sure the campus is a fit for you though; if you consider yourself a liberal Democrat then you’d be a right-winger at UCSC.

Lastly, your odds of a xfer to Cal are going to be pretty low. Cal by law gives preference to CC transfers and they have more than enough. According to Transfer admit data | UC Admissions Cal admitted 23% of all applicants, and of those admitted 95% came from a CC.

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Sac State is best for political science. UCSC is best if you want to be an activist about something.

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Did you get into Sac State’s Honors Program? It’d be perfect for a strong student a who wants a social life (there’s an Honors Residence Hall).

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Sac State grad here (from a long time ago) with a kid who attended Chico and had friends that commuted to Sac - Others above have captured why the Poli Sci program is so solid there so, i won’t dwell. They also have a well regarded Psych program. The Honors program is also a great feature. It is a commuter school but, there is a social life on and around campus. Complete with frat houses, lots of clubs, sports and on/near campus events. You will have to work harder at Sac and SJ) for your social life than you would at UCSC and perhaps UCM but, it’s there.

I’d spend some time on each of the campuses, talk to current students and see which one feel right.

Congrats and Good luck

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Another issue is cost:
UC’s give financial aid to cover room&board, CSUs don’t since there’s always a commutable one.
Once you add room&board, which is most affordable?

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Apologies for the late reply, but thank you for the detailed response. I’ve taken the time to read your reply and also visited and researched more of both CSUS and UCSC. I’ve ruled out SJSU, UCM, and CC entirely as they just don’t fit the life I want for myself in the future.

I’ve decided I want to pursue majoring in psychology at either CSUS or UCSC, to prepare for graduate school for a career in psychiatry, or law school for a career in family law. So this basically nulls Sac’s gov’t pros.

I’m also less concerned about social life at CSUS and actually more concerned for that at UCSC, because I know a lot of my current friends will go to CSUS and Sac just has a lot of groups for me to join for friends (like the marching band) but in contrast, UCSC is kind of the opposite. I also like the Sacramento city and environment a lot more, and it’s also a bit cheaper to live there.

Also, when I visited both campuses, Sac had a really friendly atmosphere and people were willing to answer my questions; lots of people were walking or biking around and I could almost envision myself going there. UCSC was very quiet in contrast, the campus is huge and looks easy to get lost in, not much going on and there was only one person willing to talk, but she was very kind and made UCSC sound very nice!

But let’s dismiss social life for now (it might not even matter b/c of COVID), which one between CSUS and UCSC has the better psych program? By that, I mean for the undergrad major program, not graduate. [Side question, would I be able to go from one of the two schools to a graduate program at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Law or the grad program in Psych)]

I would also like to know which system (CSU vs. UC) you all might think would work best for me. Currently, I’m an average student. I haven’t done well during distance Zoom learning, so it feels like independent study and discipline is really hard for me. But if it’s true that UCSC provides the best educational path, I’ll work my hardest from now on to prepare for that rigor.

For now, I’m trying not to be biased by cost. CSUS is the most affordable of course, but my family wants me to go to UCSC because they believe it will give me a better education.

All in all, if the UCSC psych program is so much better than CSUS and if going to UCSC will give me better opportunities in life, I will go there.

Also, I’ll make a new post for this, as this thread isn’t really about poli sci anymore.

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Psychiatry means med school.
You don’t need that to work as a clinical psychologist: you’d need a graduate degree in clinical psychology that’d require clinical experience (volunteering) so email both universities’ career and volunteer services to ask about what help they provide with resume-writing, interviewing, if they have a listing for a network of places into which students can be placed, etc.
Clinical Psychology means you’d need more bio/neuroscience/applied statistics than in the 'basic" psychology major.
Law school will appreciate the applied stats but will expect some writing-based classes (I’d recommend cultural anthropology). For both, fluency in Spanish or another language beside English may be helpful.
Does your financial aid cover room&board at UCSC? Perhaps email that office to know whether the FA will follow you when you move off campus.
I don’t think CSU’s include R&B financial aid.

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New thread linked here with more information