<p>Hey everyone!
I am down to two schools to pick from... CSULB and UCSC!!
I like both schools a lot, so I want to see what current students (informed people can answer too!) think the pros and cons are of CSULB.
I am so torn on which one to pick!
Thanks to anyone who responds.. I can't wait to see what everyone has to say!
I will say I am more inclined to NorCal because I do not like the LA area, but I don't know how the area around CSULB is like, so if anyone has insight to that as well, please share!</p>
<p>CSULB is not in the proximity of downtown LA and your perception of the LA area. It is far from the main LA area where downtown LA is, so you don’t have to worry about that. LB is such an amazing place with many things to do and the weather is amazing. The campus is also very large.</p>
<p>I visited UCSC and it is gorgeous, if you like the wilderness and trees then this is for you, but other than that there’s not much to do in Santa Cruz. They don’t have mall which sucks so you have to travel a lot if you want to spend some fun time.</p>
<p>I hope this helps, but the best thing to do is to tour the campus honestly.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply, and your info certainly helps!
You really cleared the whole location thing, and LB is looking better and better!
I have visited both campuses, but they were self-guided tours, so I didnt get too see much of either campus.
I might visit them again.
Thanks again for your input!</p>
<p>Well Long Beach is just that, right by the beach, it is near LA, so you can visit the touristy attractions if you’d like, but far enough that you don’t have to deal with all of that either. If you want to be about 10 minutes from the beach I would go there, they have beachside housing, and international housing, which is pretty cool. I can’t say much for Santa Cruz though, I don’t know as much about it. Long Beach is one of the better CSU’s but UCSC is a UC so that might be better, you can always do both! Start at long beach and transfer for UCSC, it would be cheaper to start at long beach anyways and get your general eds out of the way anyways. But the choice is yours 
hope I helped!</p>
<p>@Ehhreeull Thanks for the input! It really helps! Would you say that the traffic is like LA?</p>
<p>@jaciel14 </p>
<p>The traffic is nothing like LA luckily.</p>
<p>Sure UCSC might be a UC, but don’t believe the hype. It’s what you do and learn in college that matters, not necessarily what school you go to.</p>
<p>For example a friend of mine who majored in engineering at Cal Poly Pomona is already making 76k out of college because he used his knowledge to build a boat out of carbon fiber which boosted his resume/portfolio.</p>
<p>So where ever you decide to go, you have to make the most out of what you learned.</p>
<p>GO AZTECS!</p>
<p>Thanks for the input @Gunner4Life. I ultimately decided on attending UCSC because of the aid I will be recieving. This was such a tough choice because I really liked both schools, but UCSC appealed to me the best after researching more. Thank you all again for providing me with useful information!</p>