<p>Hello.
Please forgive me if my ignorance of the university system shows in this post. I just finished my freshman year (my A.A. from out of state counts for nothing!), and I'm trying to decide where I'll transfer to a year from now to finish my B.S. in Materials Science/Engineering. I think I want to focus on structural materials (threat protection, more specifically) and plan on pursuing a Ph.D. as soon as possible. UC Santa Barbara, number four on the US News list for their graduate materials engineering program, seems to be doing a good deal of research on structural materials. On the other hand, UC Irvine is right down the street and I don't know if I want to move again. Do I:</p>
<p>a) transfer to UCSB to get a solid background in structural/threat protection materials and then find another school with the same focus at which to pursue my Ph.D, or</p>
<p>b) transfer to UCI to gain a broad background including biomaterials and microstructured materials (and it looks like one Ph.D. candidate is developing ceramic armor), and hopefully apply that unique viewpoint as a grad student at UCSB, or</p>
<p>c) other?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your helpful replies...</p>
<p>UCSB doesn’t have an undergraduate program in MSE (at least they didn’t when I visited the grad program three years ago). They might have some sort of certificate program within MechE or ChemE, but I don’t know how many structural classes you’ll get to take.</p>
<p>I know UCI has a growing materials science program, but I think it’s within ChemE so I’m not sure how much structural stuff you’ll get.</p>
<p>I think your best bet would be to look at the courses offered by each school and figure out which one would more suit your interests and have fewer classes you’d be required to take that you’re not interested in.</p>
<p>Also, you may want to look into professors doing “energy absorbing” materials. That’s another fairly popular term for the stuff I think you’re interested in (we actually do a little bit of it in my lab using foams and various engineered structures).</p>
<p>Have you looked at UCLA? I know they have a full-fledged materials program and that might be more suited to your interests. A lot of large state schools out east and in the midwest also tend to have more structural/traditional materials departments than what you find out here on the west coast (publics also tending to have more industry ties), so if you’re willing to look out of CA there are some options out there.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t know enough about the field to have an interest in anything specific yet. It’s all fascinating at this point. This particular focus was my motivation for returning to school, but I could end up working on batteries for all I know.</p>
<p>I have not looked at UCLA yet. As I understand it after visiting UCR, the smaller schools offer more opportunities to participate in research as an undergrad, which is exciting to me and why I was interested in UCI. If this is the case, are there benefits to attending a larger school?</p>
<p>I haven’t looked out of state much either, but I guess I’d better start.</p>
<p>Materials Science & Engineering departments tend to be on the small side, so I think no matter where you go you’d have plenty of opportunities for research and getting to know professors. Unless you’re a CA resident I don’t see a whole lot of reason to keep your search to just within the UCs. Also, even with that, you never know what sort of financial aid you’ll get at a non-state school. It actually wound up costing the same amount of money for me to go to a pricey private as it did for my brother to go to one of our state’s publics.</p>
<p>If you’d like to learn more about Materials I definitely recommend trying to get your hands on an old edition of Materials Science & Engineering, an Introduction by William Callister. Use Amazon’s Search Inside this Book ( [Amazon.com:</a> Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction (9780470419977): William D. Callister, David G. Rethwisch: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Science-Engineering-William-Callister/dp/0470419970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276114541&sr=8-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Science-Engineering-William-Callister/dp/0470419970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276114541&sr=8-1) ) to take a look at the various chapter headings. It’s basically an outline of the classes I had to take for my undergrad degree in MSE.</p>
<p>If you’ve got any other questions about the field, feel free to ask.</p>