Help me with my decision? (UC related)

Applying to College
1

So, I have absolutely no clue what school I want to go to. Although I have some pros and cons in mind, I don’t know which choice is best.

Prospective political science major: public policy.

Here are my choices with some brief commentary:

UCR - Got in with a Chancellor’s Scholarship. (Basically – 75% off tuition, priority registration, and into the honors program for all four years) They also recently hired a new public policy person. BUT, it’s only 30 minutes from my home and I know my parents will come every damned weekend.

UC Santa Cruz - No scholarship money, although I really wanted to go to an east coast liberal arts school. From my understanding, it’s a beautiful (but isolated–no opportunity for internships??) campus. It’s the UC’s closest alternative to a lib. arts college.

Irvine - Too many Asians, I don’t want to go. (I’m Asian)

Davis - Too many cows, I don’t want to go.

Santa Barbara - Beautiful school. Crappy ugly dorms. Right on the beach! A couple of my friends might attend, potential dorm roommates. I don’t know about their poly sci program though? I’m sure it’s fine… hahaha.

San Diego - I’m waiting on it… maybe it will make me more decisive…

Cal Poly SLO - Gorgeous campus. 10 miles from the beach. One of the top public universities. Far from my parents. Again, I don’t really know much about their poly sci program, and their website doesn’t provide much… Hott men → Important one… Not horribly large class sizes… I wonder if its isolated location will hinder me from getting an internship…

Any suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated! :]

2

<p>it seems like cal poly is a good choice, im not shure about their poly sci though, but rember it is also like 50% cheeper then the ucs.</p>

3

<p>ucr is good only b/c of the money</p>

4

<p>what kind of internship are you interested in? Does it require being in a large city? Perhaps the smaller cities (Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Cruz) can offer what you need. Don't decide based on dorms; it is likely you will be in the dorms for at most one year. UCSC has grown over the years, but the college system gives you more of a LAC experience. It is definitely beautiful, but after a while you take that for granted (yes, I'm a UCSC grad circa the '70s). </p>

<p>Suggest you wait to hear from UCSD (it is also remote), and then really focus on your top 2 or 3. Are you able to visit any of them prior to making a decision?</p>

<p>good luck</p>

5

<p>Hhhmm..I'm a current UCSB student. I'm in Manzanita Village dorms and I don't think any other UC dorms can match Manzanita. Click the "Slideshow link (right on the pic)" <a href="http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/hchoices/maps-visuals.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/hchoices/maps-visuals.htm&lt;/a> and see for yourself. =)</p>

6

<p>how hard is it to get into the Manzanita dorms?</p>

7

<p>I don't think freshmen can get into them, but they're reallllly nice. I spent the summer at UCSB and totally loved it, except for the dorms (yuck). :p</p>

8

<p>Cal Poly seemed to have terrible dorms</p>