UCB vs UCD vs SLO vs SDSU for Environmental Science - please help!

College Search & Selection
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1

(may transfer to envi engineering/something in the same college I was accepted in)

Preferences (in order): lots of opportunities for internships/large alumni network, not incredibly stressful, hands on learning (luckily, cost isn’t an issue and I don’t mind location/student life that much)

I did research on these schools, but some of it is based on what I’ve heard, so please correct me if I’m wrong :slight_smile:

UC Berkeley
Pros:

  • alumni median salary is higher than other schools I’m considering
  • ranked higher in general
    Cons:
  • it’s stressful… maybe too much for my liking

UC Davis
Pros:

  • not as stressful as UCB
    Cons:
  • lower ranking, alumni median salary, but I’m not sure by much

Cal Poly SLO
Pros:

  • applied to be in the honors program
  • smaller class sizes and more hands on
  • less stressful

Cons:

  • sounds like it’s hard to transfer majors (would being in the honors program help?). This would be an issue because I’m thinking about switching majors already…

SDSU

  • To be honest, I don’t know much about SDSU (heard they get a lot of money for research?) but it’s an option

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

2

UCD!! Their program for ur major is renowned. Take median incomes reported with a grain of salt, they’re usually self reported and tend to be inaccurate. If I were you, especially if looking for an environment that’s NOT stressful (like Berkeley), without a doubt I would choose Davis.

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That makes sense, thank you!

4

Varies by major: https://career.berkeley.edu/survey/survey

For colleges without their own career survey results, you can check College Scorecard for pay levels by major of graduates who received federal financial aid.

Note that changing into a College of Engineering major at UCB is likely to be difficult: Change of college - Berkeley Engineering