<p>Another California Perspective (From a middle class kid living in a rather snobby upper class area)</p>
<p>[Keep in mind that I go to the highest scoring public school in the area, so these views may be a tad different than other California kids]
UCs: These are for the high achievers and are generally expensive (~30k total per year for instate and tack on at least 15k more for OOS)</p>
<p>UC Berkeley & UCLA are at the top; anyone who’s kept their nose in a book all their high school life aspires to go there and those that don’t think that they can get in there. Everyone thinks that they have the strongest programs, hands down, no questions asked. If you can get in here, you know you’re good. Graduating from here will unlock a lot of opportunities. </p>
<p>UC San Diego is a close third, but without the “prestige factor” of the top two and definitely lacking the athletics. For that matter, none of the UCs besides Cal & UCLA have any academics worth being proud of, save maybe UCSB’s soccer. From everything we’ve heard, social life at UCSD sucks. It’s technically not even in San Diego, but rather La Jolla.</p>
<p>UC Davis is where people who can’t get in to UCB, UCLA, or UCSD go; it’s in the middle of nowhere, smells like a farm, but the people that end up there love it after a while.</p>
<p>UC Irvine is more than half Asian, so if you have yellow fever this is the place for you. One of only two UCs with a business school, it has a nice SoCal location, and the surrounding area is VERY reminiscent of suburban San Jose (at least that’s what I gathered from my visit there)</p>
<p>UC Santa Barbara is the party school. All of smarter kids at my school think that it’s a bad school, and NONE of them want to go here because white people scare them (my school is mostly Asian, followed by Hispanics, and I’d say there’s about as many blacks as there are whites; you can count the number of blonde people here on two hands). Right on the beach with hot girls everywhere, this is where the kids who have good, but not mind-blowing, stats want to go, and the “less intelligent” who spent their high school years partying think they can get in.</p>
<p>UC Santa Cruz is for the super liberal types that don’t mind pot. The perceived notion is that it’s filled with hippies, potheads, extreme activists, and surfers. Nobody really wants to go here unless they love the outdoors or love smoking weed. If you don’t mind living in Santa Cruz, it’s near the beach, redwood forests, and mountains; a perfect location.</p>
<p>UC Riverside is basically where all the people that couldn’t get in to any of the other UCs go, but don’t want to go to a CSU. The same can be said for UC Merced, but Merced is new and people aren’t sure how “prestigious” it will get. Regardless, UCR & UCM are considered the worst of the UC system and most high achievers would never want to end up here, but many alumni from these schools argue that a UC is a UC, so it must be better than any CSU by far.</p>
<p>Cal State Universities:
Basically, there are only a handful of good CSUs, but they do provide students with a cheaper alternative to UCs. You’re looking at around 20k for everything per year)</p>
<p>Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo is definitely the best CSU (some would argue that it’s better than some of the lower- and mid-tier UCs). It’s known for it’s engineering, and I think it’s business program is respectable.</p>
<p>San Jose State - I’m from SJ and people from my school think that if you end up here (or in any of the other CSUs, save Cal Poly SLO), you basically fail at life. It’s not true, though: SJSU is well-known in the Silicon Valley (and, to a lesser extent, California as a whole) for engineering, and especially anything to do with computers. If you want to end up working in the Silicon Valley, SJSU is a great place to go considering all of the possible internships available. Technological giants are abound here. & I don’t know if it’s just because I live in SJ or not, but nearly everyone I know that goes there commutes.</p>
<p>San Diego State is one of the better CSUs, and probably the best for business. It has a nice campus and is in beautiful San Diego, so that’s a plus. We hear that Greek life is pretty big down there, and keep in mind that it is considered a party school.</p>
<p>CSU Long Beach - I’m not too sure about this one: some people say it’s great, others could care less. I don’t know much about it. Consensus at my school: garbage.
San Francisco State is where kids with less than stellar stats go if they want to live in SF, simple as that. I’m sure there’s plenty of places for internships there.</p>
<p>The rest of the CSUs- Garbage. Kids go to Chico State to party, Humboldt to smoke their brains out, and Maritime if they like boats. The smart kids at my school would never consider even applying to a CSU (except Cal Poly), though some throw in SJ, SD, or SF as a back up. Mostly, it’s the kids with less than a 3.0 who end up at the state schools.</p>
<p>Privates:</p>
<p>Stanford - it’s Stanford, 'nuff said. We’ve had 3 kids every year accepted to Stanford. No more, no less, it’s been 3 for the past couple years. All the smart kids apply, few ever get in. All of the people I know that go or will be going there are on athletic scholarships, and those kids still had amazing grades. Apparently their financial aid is AMAZING; my parents were talking about how if your family made under a certain amount (I think it was 60k or 80k), they would pay for your tuition.</p>
<p>USC - A fun school that is academically strong, has a great alumni base, but is looked down upon by UCB and UCLA students. Considered snobby by UCs because they “payed more for their education”, all of the Trojans I know are cool and down to earth. Parties galore.
Pepperdine - Awesome location right on the beach and just as expensive as USC, but with religious ties. You know what that means: a dry campus with little to no partying. Very conservative.</p>
<p>University of the Pacific - Don’t know why it’s called this; it’s in Stockton which is probably at least a good hour away from any beach. It’s near a port, if that counts I guess. From what I’ve heard it’s where kids go if they want to do something in the medical field. Not hard to get into, so many “average” students go here.</p>
<p>University of San Francisco- a small little private school, kids go here to get the “intimate” experience with their professors while getting the chance to live in the City. Not very hard to get in to.</p>
<p>Then there’s a plethora of small LACs that will spam you with mail after you sign up for PSATs and SATs. Personally, I could never go to a college that’s around the same size of my high school, but if you don’t like big crowds or really want to get to know your teachers, go ahead and look into those.</p>