<p>Most CSUs, if not all, don't have Ph.D. programs. For that reason, there isn't nearly the amount of research going on at these schools, and doing research as an undergraduate is something really important if you are planning on going to grad school. All UC schools are research institutions, so the opportunities to do research there are much more plentiful.</p>
<p>It is true that UC's are research schools, but Cal Poly SLO(and perhaps Pomona) requires a senior project. This requires the student to either invent something or do research before graduation. Because of the lack of grad students, a lot of research is done with the assistance of undergrads. The opportunity not only exists, but participation is required.</p>
<p>the polytechnic universities at SLO and pomona require major senior projects that typically translate into multiple job offers. these campuses have outstanding programs both in engineering and business, and SLO in fact has higher admission standards and is more selective than several UCs.</p>
<p>some key things to know:</p>
<p>UCs have undergraduate degree programs in engineering but not in business which is hidden under economics (read lots of theory).</p>
<p>the polytechnics prepare you best in applied fields wherein you have an immediate translation into a good job right out of school; ie, engineer or architect or accountant.</p>
<p>unless you plan to go on for a research degree right away you both save more money and get a more applied degree at a polytechnic university. by the way, there are only six in the nation, and california has two of them. and many say unless you are at one of the big three UCs you lose very little prestige as well.</p>
<p>"UCs have undergraduate degree programs in engineering but not in business which is hidden under economics (read lots of theory)."</p>
<p>Mostly true, but UCR and Cal do.</p>
<p>Merced will have a undergrad business major too.</p>
<p>readers should be advised that UC Merced will not even open for business until fall 2005. for the 05-06 school year merced is expected to have very few majors and 1,000 students max. the so called business degree program is actually economics management or something of that sort.</p>
<p>this is not meant to bash merced for in a decade this will be an outstanding state university, eventually projected to have 25,000 students. it is a totally brand new campus with state of the art everything. but unless you are planning to get some sort of general studies major and then go on to a serious grad school like berkeley i would let others be the guinea pig classes. let them work out the bugs.</p>
<p>UCM has only one place to go and that is up. So years after you've obtained your degree from Merced...it will still be increasing in value as the school is increasing in recognition and prestige.</p>
<p>already duly noted. the point is that very few majors will be offered initially so ideal for a general studies student but not advisable for highly specialized fields until the university matures in future years.</p>
<p>UCR is a dump! Save your money and go to CC.</p>
<p>no matter how much you bash it riverside is still a campus of one of the finest state university systems in the world. yes, it is inferior to most if not all other campuses in the system, but try comparing it to flagship state universities in many other states, ie, the dakotas, wyoming, idaho, montana, new mexico, hawaii, alaska, mississippi, new hampshire, vermont...riverside blows all of them away. quality is relative, and riverside has many excellent academic programs.</p>
<p>I agree. Even though many people nitpick and call UCR this crappy school, it is still a UC, and that means something.</p>
<p>I always find it interesting when people are embarassed or unexcited about going to UC Riverside, but then you look at a much lower-ranked school like a Cal State and the students there are so filled with school spirit that it's contagious. I think part of the reason is that the students at UCR probably applied to several UC schools and Riverside might have been the only one that they got in to. But if you look at a lot of the Cal State folks (minus those at the Cal Polys), most of them don't even think about UC schools because they don't think they're qualified and only apply to Cal States. When they get there, they're all just so excited about the prospect of going to any university that they're really happy to be there and not embarassed at all.</p>
<p>riverside does face a positioning challenge. because other schools in the system have more resources and better locations it is difficult for this campus to move up the ladder. thus, it gets trashed just because it is at the bottom albeit arguably the finest state university system in the world.</p>
<p>i know on authority that a large number of students at the two cal poly campuses turned down admit letters to riverside and instead chose either san luis opisbo or pomona. that makes the riverside sell even tougher, particularly given that most students there are commuters. this too makes raising school spirit even more difficult, as evidenced by average attendance at home basketball games easily the lowest in its conference.</p>
<p>that said, riverside is outstanding in many areas such as the sciences and the humanities. am told by a friend there that it leads the nation in certain fields such as citrus studies and certain types of entomology.</p>
<p>You're going into EE?
Definitely push for SLO.
It has an excellent reputation with employers and
a better reputation then Riverside with grad schools for
engineering, particularly electrical engineering.
Best of luck!</p>
<p>cal poly slo has a higly rated engineering program and employers know this
it has a def advantage over UCR
Cal Poly is a must over UCR</p>
<p>I hate both schools! The lack of diversity at Cal Poly makes me sick. The school I want to go to is Davis, its easier to transfer there from UCR.</p>
<p>davis is an excellent university, particularly strong in the sciences and agriculture. but if you want diversity and high quality take a peek at cal poly pomona, which has only 30 per cent of the student body who are white. asians are most and hispanics also more than a quarter. many students there turned down admit letters to riverside and davis.</p>
<p>Ucrla in a previous thread said, " I completely agree with UCstudent above. Unfortunately, all those rankings have serious flaws with them. Don't base your perception of a university on what a magazine says or even the popular opinion of people who never attended a given school. I have attended 3 UC schools- one supposedly at the top tier, one in the middle tier, and the other on the bottom tier. I got my BS at UCLA in Neuroscience, took summer classes at UCI, and am currently working toward a PhD in Neuroscience at UCR. And let me tell you, people's perceptions of UCR are totally wrong. At UCLA, you will get absolutely no attention from professors, most of whom look down on undergrads (I'm NOT speaking of any personal experiences). Teaching is definitely not a priority there. The competition at UCLA is fierce, and I have heard of several students getting kicked out for cheating. I had a friend renting a studio apartment in Westwood for $1200/ month! A studio! Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVED my experience there and wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING. At UC Riverside, there's no big name, but that's changing, and changing quickly. Teaching is much more of a priority there and you are more likely to learn. I've seen the undergrad classes at both schools and there is no difference in the difficulty between the two. As more and more people realize this, UCR's reputation is likely to grow. Indeed, my neighbor is a computer science professor there and told me of a discussion he had with a UCI computer science professor, who told my neighbor that within 3 years, UCR will surpass UCI. So to all of you reading this, the quality of education is pretty much the same between all tiers of the UC. The only difference is the name. Although, a bigger name school like UCLA, SD or Berkeley will likely have more options for majors of study, simply because they have the population base to support it. As UCR expands, as it is aggressively doing, admission will become more and more competitive as it runs out of room to grow. This is what happened with LA and Berkeley. They couldn't build more, so they couldn't admit more students. As a result, only the top applicants could be admitted. In summary, just about any UC will give you a great education. Pay no attention to subjective surveys like US News. One possible source to look at is a 1997 book called "The Rise of American Research Universities". Its rankings are based purely on hard facts, not public perception. Spread the word."</p>
<p>great post, int. top tier research universities do not always deliver top tier undergraduate teaching. my experience with a top tier school as an undergraduate was that of a lost lamb in lecture halls as large as 900 students. riverside is a very fine university that gets a bad rap because its prestige is not as high as other UC campus. but it sill is a part of the finest state university system in the world. as a professor who has taught at six different universities around the nation i would suggest future students look more at major research universities for graduate study and focus on high quality schools, both public and private, that emphasize teaching at the undegraduate level. in california, for example, the UC campuses at riverside, santa cruz, davis, irvine and santa barbara, and the CSU polytechnic campuses at san luis opisbo and pomona are outstanding examples. any of the claremont college consortium are great on the private side.</p>
<p>I hope this helps. My cousin got his degree in Bio from UCR. He's currently attending NYU's Dental School. So I guess the UC name really helped him even though it's like at the lowest ranked UC.</p>