The difference between living at home and going to UCI and living on campus or near campus at UCLA is about 15k I would think.
I wanted to chime in as my kid attends UCI. From what I understand, taking premed courses at any UC campus will be competitive. Would you have an “easier” time at getting A’s at UCI? It’s hard to say. There are definitely weeder courses at the university. You mentioned that you still need to complete calculus. Unlike other UC campuses, there is only a single calculus series that students can take ( i.e. At Cal, non-engineers take math 16A - calculus for life sciences. Engineers take Math 1A/!B. Same at UCLA ). Be aware that at UCI, engineering and non-engineering majors take the same Math 2 calc series. It is rumored that the calculus course has the highest fail rate (50%) at UCI. And yes, my kid failed 2nd quarter Calc.
If you are concerned about prestige, while UCI does not have the same big name reputation like UCLA, it is definitely moving up in the college rankings and every year the admissions rate continues to drop. I believe the admissions rate for 2019 is <25% which is a huge drop from when my son applied (38%).
Sorry. I wanted to correct my post above. There is Math 5A at UCI which is for Life Science majors. I believe most kids opt for the 2 series as that would give them the option to not be locked into Bio. should they decide to switch majors.
If finances are important and you can live at home going to UCI, you’d save about 15k per year, depending on the housing you’d choose at UCLA. Not a small amount of money over 4 years. If money is not an issue, or if your parents are open to you living away, it’s UCLA all the way. Both campuses are great, but there’s something very special about UCLA that you can feel while on campus. It’s got prestige, great sports, the marching band, a gorgeous campus, Westwood, and great dining options. The facilities are all first rate from what I’ve seen. My daughter got in to all the UCs and also Vanderbilt and she will be attending UCLA.
In summary, to me UCLA offers the best package compared to any college, especially for in-sate students. I guess that’s why they got 111,000 applications this year.
Am I the only one who thinks course availablity matters to OP? He/she is a transfer, so this does matter. At UCI, if he switched to public health, which sounds doable (should be confirmed,) he’d be in the life sciences category:
" But at UCLA, it would provide a pain in the ass… considering I’m not life sciences. As for UCI, I’m public health policy and I could switch to Public Health Sciences … For Public Health they actually have reservations for certain bio classes I need so I could have the same advantage as bio sci majors"
It sounds like what the OP is saying is that at UCI they’d be majoring in public health policy, and therefore get priority registration for the science courses needed for pre-meds. At UCLA, as a comp lit major, they would not get that priority registration. The OP is a CC transfer. They only have two more years to get in all the rest of the classes they’d need to apply to med school.
If the OP is serious about applying to med school, this seems to me to be a substantial difference.
If you want to go pre-med then think about:
- The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
- The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
- Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
- Success in graduates getting into med school
- Options if you don’t go to med school. You think you are going to med school, but less than 20% of pre-med freshman actually do.
- Ability to get into the pre-med courses
My DD was pre-med and after taking Bio and Org chem at the same time, decided she didn’t want to spend the next 8+ years on intensive studying like that…so now she is not planning to apply to med school despite completing all of the pre-med requirements.
5 is important. What if OP decides not to pursue medical school? What is the plan B with Comp Lit at UCLA? How difficult is it to switch majors if he/she decides to follow another course?
“Anyhow, I just kinda wanna say whatever and go to UCLA because it’s UCLA! It would break me out of my shell, let me leave my toxic home life (nothing horrible but doesn’t really help me personally), and it would provide me with lots opportunities.”
If your home life is “toxic”, than living at home another two years and going to UCI is not a good solution. College is not just about your major but also about your growth and healthy journey into adulthood. For most students, its best to not live with your parents during college, whether you choose UCI or UCLA.
We don;t know what toxic means and this is both about OP’s present and future. CC often tells kids to endure for two more years, to get to their goals. We don’t know what the home issues are.
I agree with the home environment being very important.
However, there are certainly many posters who encourage financial responsibility, but I’ve never once seen a poster encouraging a student to stay in a toxic home to save money. Never.
But that being said, if UCLA and living on campus or an apartment is an option why isn’t it an option at UCI.
I wouldn’t eliminate uci just for monetary reasons. The specific major and access to classes are important too.
It’s not like UCI is a some second rate school. It’s a UC for goodness sakes.
UCLA could be a great option too. Both work in my book.
I agree with lookingforward and Cardinal Fang that course availability is a very significant concern. If some courses are blocked for non-STEM majors, that would be a real problem initially. If the courses are not blocked, but STEM majors have priority, access could also be a problem. If this meant three more years to complete the degree at UCLA, while getting in all of the required pre-med courses, that would have its pros and cons (money being one). If it meant four more years to complete the degree, or even more, that could start being really problematic.
The OP should start preparing this summer for the math and physics courses that will be required. Especially if there has been a two-year interruption in math courses, it tends to be hard to return at first. It can definitely be done, but the OP has to be prepared to put in the work–and it is work of a somewhat different kind than gen chem, organic, and bio courses.
OP- your toxic home life statement modifier makes it seem not at all toxic, just not what you want. Saving money is huge if one intends to go to medical school. Your thoughts expressed seem all over the map. Sounds to me like a lot of maturing yet to occur. Toxic because your parents disagree with you???