SDSU vs UCI - Environmental Engineering

My son is both accepted at SDSU and UCI. Any opinions as to which school?

As a transfer?

  1. What is his preference since there is a reason he applied to both schools?
  2. Costs between both schools?
  3. Has he compared the curriculum’s for each school?
  4. Does he have a preference in location?
  5. What kind of college experience is he interested in having?

As a freshman.

  1. He prefers a school with more hands-on and practical experience.
    2)SDSU is like $30k and UCI would be $36k (still waiting for financial aid award letter from UCI, so it may be comparable if he gets financial aid).
    3)Not sure about that. I’ll asked him.
  2. no location preference.
    5)coming from a small town he is looking forward to expanding social connections and experience, collaborative community while getting a quality education.

Thanks for the reply.

I do not have any direct experience with the Engineering department at either school, but my younger son attended SDSU as a Computer Science major and had plenty of hands-on experience for his major classes. His roommate was a Civil Engineering major and was very satisfied with his education at SDSU.

CSU’s in general were established to get graduates into the workforce so more practical/hands-on experience and education. UC’s do offer similar opportunities and it can vary for each campus and major program, but UC’s tend to emphasize research and post graduate programs.

Was he admitted off a waitlist since it is very late to be making a decision?

If both are affordable and the academics similar, then social fit might prove to be the best criteria in making his decision.

Yes, he’s admitted off the waitlist. He was on the waitlist for UC Irvine and Berkely. But decided against Berkely for he hears it is a cut-throat environment and not easy to change major if ever.

Thank you for the response. Appreciate it.