Alrighty so I am stuck between 3 schools.
Occidental College
University of California-- Santa Cruz
University of California-- San Diego
I understand that UCSC is the less prestigious of the three, but they offered me the Regents Scholarship. THat combined with need based financial aid makes my total cost roughly $3,000 for UCSC. Occidental and UCSD have roughly the same aid package, with the total costs around $11,000 after grants.
Please help guys…I love San Diego and Santa Cruz’s location but I don’t know much about Occidental’s location. I am unsure about my major but I am currently declared as a Psych major.
The reason I am so unsure about UCSD is their cut throat academic environment. After 4 stressful years of IB, I would rather not kill myself over school work again. I also heard that UCSD’s social scene kinda sucks…
I just need some advice…any advice!!
UCSD social scene is a stereotype there’s friends & colleagues to be made at every college campus. In the long run it’s about personal preference I know the two UCs are research based learning and near the beach. So college experience is what you make of it. You could either make it crappy or make it awesome.
If you plan to pursue a Psych undergrad degree, you will probably need to consider Grad school which will be an additional expense. If you are undecided, UCSD may be an issue if plan to switch into an impacted major. I suggest you go with the lowest cost school which would be UCSC. You will get an excellent education, more options if you choose to change majors and save money in the long run. UCSD is also an excellent choice but you need to feel comfortable which ever school you choose.
Good Luck with your decision.
Gumbymom’s advice is solid. I’m gonna add that the only impacted majors at UCSD are engineering, though, in case that’s a concern.
The academic environment here is competitive, but not cutthroat. It’s a lot more collaborative than the crazy crap you hear about some UCs.
Feel free to ask me any specific questions you have about UCSD! Sadly, I don’t know enough about the other two schools to give you an educated opinion (although I declined UCSC last year). Good luck!
Occidental is near LA and is a highly thought of LAC, with strengths in the social sciences and the sciences. Their political science and IR programs are legendary, with a selective semester at the UN, and a program where you can work on a political campaign of your choice (which would be awesome with 2016 coming up).
Compared to UCSC Regents, you’d have a more personalized education, better advising, more interactive classes, a close-knit community, greater “learning comfort”, and students with higher academics.
UCSC has better name recognition, in the general population, a wonderful location and campus, more students, more classes to choose from* a more laid-back vibe, and you have the Regents advantage.
expect about 800 classes a semester, of which you can choose 4 at Occidental, and about 5,000 classes at UCSC, of which you can choose 5, with more tracks and rotations.