<p>I sort of applied to colleges based on their prestige and not really because I wanted to go to any one of them; they all seemed pretty good so I applied to them . I want to study Economics and go on to get a JD. I was accepted into UCSB, California Lutheran University, Pepperdine, CSUN and CSUCI. I have no idea what to look for in these schools to make a good decision; any ideas as to what I should look for or what each of these schools have that are special or make them worth going to? How good is the education at UCSB verses a decent private school Like California Lutheran? </p>
<p>They are really all over the map. You must be able to cross off the outliers. For example, can you afford Pepperdine or Cal Lutheran? Do you want to go to a religious school?
To answer your last question, the education at UCSB is just fine - in that UC sort of way. Its a big school with large lecture halls for many lower division courses. Pepperdine and Cal Lutheran are much more intimate </p>
<p>CSUN and CI are commuter schools, N is ‘better’ by most measures but, CI is much smaller and well outside of LA proper and closer to the beach. </p>
<p>Any of these could be the right choice for you. What are you looking for in a college and how thick is your wallet?</p>
<p>Not very large; I’m depending on scholarships mostly and loans to get me through school. I know that at Cal Lutheran I can get the tuition really low because of a scholarship they give if you are accepted to UCSB UCLA and a few other UC’s. That and I was given a 20,000 scholarship for Cal Lu. I think price wise I’ll end up paying a few thousand dollars for whatever school I choose (still waiting for financial aid for the State schools and Pepperdine however) into, my question really is which will give me better professors and at the end of the day a better education. I want to go to a school where I know that when I leave the school and look for work I will have learned something and learned it well. </p>
<p>Visit the schools. They are very different. I believe UCSB’s admitted student day, Spring Insight is in a few weeks (yep, April 12 - register here: <a href=“Open House | Undergraduate Admissions”>https://admissions.sa.ucsb.edu/visit-ucsb/open-house</a> ) They each have a different feel, and you need to choose what you want. UCSB is rated in the top 50 in the nation for economics (I’m not really sure of the exact number - I saw it earlier today). When I was checking Cal Lu for someone else I noted that they give an automatic scholarship to those who are admitted to UCSB and go to Cal Lu instead. <a href=“http://www.callutheran.edu/financial_aid/scholarships-assistance/”>http://www.callutheran.edu/financial_aid/scholarships-assistance/</a></p>
<p>I thought that spoke pretty well of UCSB (I note they don’t give this scholarship to those admitted to even all of the UCs.) I went to UCSB and wouldn’t pass its opportunities, myself, though. Yes, some lower division classes are VERY large, however, with all the resources of a research university and only a fraction of the graduate students, undergraduates there have excellent opportunities they don’t have at most other large universities, where they are competing with graduate students. Students are very happy there, as a rule, in their own beach community, and its academics are excellent. It is well thought of by law schools (here is the list of schools from which Harvard Law enrolled students last year – although I am sure other schools were in the running and likely are represented other years: <a href=“http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/undergrads.html”>http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/undergrads.html</a> ) </p>
<p>I encourage you to check them out in person and see which appeals most to you.</p>
<p>Thank You I will! :)</p>
<p>Be careful of the Cal Lu scholarship read the LAST part of this (from the link above)
</p>
<p>If you are counting on the $20,000 scholarship to be ON TOP of this, I am not sure it is. I don’t know if the guarantee matches any aid you’d get from UCSB diminishing the UCSB cost, either. You will want to make sure you know how it works.</p>
<p>Pepperdine is extremely religious, with mandatory chapel attendance as well as religion classes. If you a a devout fundamentalist Christian, this may be a good fit for you.</p>
<p>Hi MelvinD,
Congratulations on all your acceptances.
I’m a Mom from the Bay Area who hesitated sending her very quiet kid off to “the party school” especially since he got into other UC’s. He is a Junior at UC Santa Barbara. He’s a Bio major so I can’t help you too much except to say that the academics are demanding and he LOVES it there. The tutoring is great, the weather is perfect, the kids are mostly very happy, the professors are fair, you will learn how to WRITE and there are tons of activities. No pressure to party…IV will grow on you. All is good except he rarely wants to come home. 
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