alright, so i was accepted to UCD and UCI under “computer science and engineering” and CP:SLO for electrical engineering. i’m having trouble making a decision for a couple reasons.
i’m from the sf bay area, and i like davis for the location. it’s not too far from home, its a suburban area (which i presume i prefer over city life), i have 2 sisters there, and its close to tahoe for snowboarding. it was generally my top pick. the problem is that i’m wondering where i will get the best education. i know that overall, uci and ucd are very close (ucd being ranked 1 over uci), but both of them are focused on bio. i understand that cpslo EE is hardcore and that is the strength of cpslo, but how does slo’s engineering program compare to davis and irvine?
another problem i am having is that i am not totally sure about studying engineering. i’m afraid that at cal poly, if i lose interest im basically screwed while ucd and uci are better overall schools to get a degree from. as of now, i am planning to get a masters in bus. admin or some other non-engineering subject.
if you have any input or comments, they are appreciated, because i really want to make a wise decision here. it would be a lot easier if i was certain about what i wanted to do for a living.
<p>Cal poly will get you started on classes in major right off the bad, so you will no quickly if you like that major. It is more difficult to change majors there,especially to something completely unrelated, but, a lot of students do change. UCD/UCI will have you do more general studies your first 3 years. UC is a good choice if you plan to go on to grad school, but CalPoly has the reputation for turning out students who are job ready (employers love Cal Poly engineering grads).</p>
<p>If you're not sure about engineering, don't go to Cal Poly, overall, the other 2 have much stronger student bodies (outside of engineering) and will give you more options. </p>
<p>UCD gets a small edge over UCI, but it's really not significant. Davis is a better college town and less of a commuter campus.</p>
<p>I agree a UC would be better for a liberal arts degree, but i question the student body comment. All three schools have around a 3.9 and 1250 average for accepted students.</p>
<p>wow you're in the same exact situation as me. UCD was my first choice because i've been there for a month and i really liked the campus. davis has a good distance too, not too far from home, like you said. both davis and cal poly are very good schools and i had a very hard time deciding which one i should go to. i ended up choosing cal poly SLO because it's good for preparing careers and such after graduation. I don't think i wanna go to graduate school, but if i really want to, i can still choose to attend graduate school after, regardless of which college you go to. since i'm also from the bay area, if i went to davis, i'll most likely meet the same people around the bay area. but if i go to cal poly, which is in central california, i might have a chance to meet a lot more people from all over california as well as other states. </p>
<p>I chose engineering for my major and don't know if i really like it. I chose materials engineering, that's probably the only major that can allow me to work in variety of career fields. I guess if i don't like it (hopefully not), i can still change. So yea, it's up to you, since they're both good schools, wherever you choose to go, you'll be fine. Good luck!:)</p>
<p>as an engineer at UCD, and making the same decision as you guys, i can tell you UCD engineering, aside from EE and Architectural Engineering, is as good as if not better than the enginering at SLO, this is based off hiring statistics and post graduate statistics that my HS councilor supplied me with while making me decision.</p>
<p>thanks everyone for your comments. i am leaning towards davis because it seems like an overall better experience for me. plus, since i plan to study some sort of grad school, my undergrad may not be so important. irvine doesnt seem to offer much for me, other than a change to socal. i did some reading about irvine's engineering school however, and it seemed pretty good in terms of funding and opportunities.</p>