I was recently accepted to UCSB as a Biological Sciences major with the intention of going into Biochem/Molecular biology later on.
The issues I’m having in deciding between UCD and UCSB is that
1.I live in San Francisco and UCD is about an hour and a half away while UCSB is 5 hours away.
- The weather at UCD is too hot for me. I can handle mid 75s and low 80s but I cannot stand anything above that.
- I have heard that UCD is a great school if you are interested in the dental/medical fields, but I feel more comfortable with the over-all feel of the UCSB campus(I have visited both) where the size is not too big and not too small whereas Davis is just.. huge.
Anyway, so my parents(more so my mother) seem to disapprove of my choosing of UCSB over UCD mainly because of the distance and their assumption that UCD is superior to UCSB in every aspect. Long story short, if I decide to attend UCSB, then I will have to find a way to get from San Francisco to UCSB myself(I can’t drive/don’t have a car) since my parents aren’t willing to take the 5 hour drive to get me there.
So I have a few questions that would hopefully guide me to make the final decision:
Weather:
How is the weather like at UCSB? I prefer the temperatures to be at the low-mid 60s but I don’t mind if the weather ranges from the mid 70s to the low 80s.
Transportation:
How complicated would the travel from SF to SB(or vice versa) be if I were to take the Amtrak or some other mode of transportation besides a car or an airplane. (I can afford to shell out ~150 for transportation)
Dorms:
How are the dorms? Which dorms would be the best in terms of size and appearance? Which one is close to a pool(Interested in joining the swimming team)
Classes:
How many classes do students take on average per week? How stressful would freshman year be?
Thanks