Hello Folks. First of all, stuck in an interesting dilemma. I’m a ccc student most likely transferring to one of the UC’s in Fall 2018. My major is Anthropology, and as some of you may not know, there are four sub-disciplines of Anthro. I’m more interested in the Biological Anthropology route, and when I applied to these UC schools (Berkeley, Davis, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz), I chose them based on either 1. How prestigious the school was, e.g., UCLA, or 2. Because the campus was close to me, e.g. Davis. These schools had the Anthropology major, and so I applied to these schools recently. Within the Biological Anthro discipline, I’m specifically interested in Paleoanthropology.
After I submitted my applications, I started exploring the Anthro courses each of these UC’s offered and came to realize that my TAG school (UCSB) didn’t really fit with what I was looking for and I wish I would have discovered this earlier. Instead, I recently discovered that UCSC and UCLA had the best course offerings that fit my interests in Paleoanthropology and Biological Anthro as a whole. UC Santa Cruz has the better course offerings for my interests, while UCLA has less. Don’t get me wrong, UCLA has some wonderful courses in my interest area but not as much as UCSC. Of course, it is my goal to get as much experience in my field of interest at the undergrad level through these courses before grad school. However, a part of me is gravitating towards UCLA. Perhaps, because of it’s name and prestige compared to UCSC, and my dream of going there since high school.
What would you recommend in this situation? In this specific situation, note that I’m assuming I will get into both of these schools. Thanks for all the help folks!
