<p>(For my safeties)
Out of these five, which one's the best?</p>
<p>UCSB
UCDavis
UCMerced
UCR
UCSC</p>
<p>considering all the facts like rank, campus, majors...please help!</p>
<p>SB is strong in chemistry and physics, really nice campus..LOTS of Parties</p>
<p>Davis is the highest ranked overall,not sure of ranked, It is kinda in a weird location, but it still a short ride from SF and Sacramento</p>
<p>Merced is a joke,SDSU is MUCH better</p>
<p>RIverside is ok, The campus sucks, the academics are ok</p>
<p>UCSC: What UCal was before the prestige went crazy. Very Hippie. Really nice campus of the beach.Astronomy and Astrophysics program is run with NASA AMES, Top ranked program.</p>
<p>In terms of academics, for most majors, Davis would be considered the best among those, followed by Santa Barbara… Santa Cruz, Riverside, and Merced are somewhat further behind, in that order. However, it’s important to consider your major, because each has individual strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Davis’s bio/premed is really good, Santa Cruz’s astrophysics/astronomy/anything to do with space is extremely good, SB’s chemical engineering is supposed to be really good…do some research on that.</p>
<p>In terms of the campus itself and quality of life, depends on what you want. Davis is supposedly a really fun place for college students to live, the city is geared toward college students, etc., very bicycling-oriented, the only downside is no beach; Santa Barbara has the big parties and the beach; UCSC has a beautiful campus that is in the forest, and the town has a great atmosphere- and yes, a fair amount of hippies (I live in SC); and not to sound biased, but Merced and Riverside are infamous for horrible quality of life. Riverside is ugly and dirty, and Merced is boring and there’s no one there. I know that sounds harsh but it’s the general consensus from all the sources I’ve come across.</p>
<p>It also helps to know what you’re looking for in terms of urban/rural. Riverside is sort of more big-city, if you’re into that (but trust me, don’t pick it). Davis is more rural, but although the town is kind of small it’s a college town and there’s a lot to do there. Santa Barbara is a moderately large city and is pretty fun. Santa Cruz is kind of small, and downtown is kind of a drive from the actual campus, but there’s a fair amount going on. Merced has nothing, nothing but farmland.</p>
<p>So that’s just a bit about each one…I would recommend visiting each campus (when school is in session, for sure, I would even see if you can sit in on classes). That will let you get a much better idea.</p>
<p>yep, nightmarerec0n is right.</p>
<p>My friend’s dad turned down Caltech for UCSB for chem grad school because UCSB stole Caltech’s best professor, lol.</p>