I have an interesting situation that I’d like to present to the forum and get your opinions.
My son and his best friend were both accepted to UCLA and UCI (CHP: Campuswide Honors Program). CHP allows for smaller classroom size, more interactions with professors and other honors students, you’ll live in a separate area with other honors students, and will have priority in selecting classes. Those are the perks of the program from what I’ve read. Supposedly, only 2.5% of the UCI students are selected for the CHP.
The friend’s parents are steering their son towards UCI because of CHP, and the thinking that it’s “easier” to get better grades due to the competition being not as intense as UCLA. Both kids of course don’t know what to do career-wise, kinda leaning towards healthcare (MD, DDS, or DVM, but not Pharm. D). His friend’s parents told me that if all you want is a BS degree, then UCLA is the better choice, but since both kids intend to go for post-grad work, having higher grades from UCI is better than not-as-high grades from UCLA (due to competition being easier, supposedly).
My questions to you guys are: would you turn down UCLA in favor of UCI for the above reasons? Is the CHP program at UCI that special and beneficial? As for “easier” competition at UCI, I said to my son that you’ve proven that you have what it takes to be accepted to UCLA, you don’t want to “'chicken out”. Also, is a degree from UCLA worth somewhat more than one from UCI? I would think that it’s a no-brainer to choose UCLA over UCI.
What would you tell your kid, if they had the choice these 2 do?
@CS2GO UCI Honors would not be easier than UCLA. It’s incorrect nowadays to assume uci students and the classes are easier than UCLA or cal. In fact amongst the top half of UCs they are all the same in hardness once you get there. I took classes at davis for a summer and it was just as rigorous in terms of teaching and the student body as UCLA. Go to UCLA especially if that’s your first choice. It’s also not wise to follow a friend where they go if it’s not the right choice for your son. Both schools will result in similar grades in the end. It’s easy to get classes at UCLA if you’re flexible on times. Also most of the classes are very small <50 people in the upper division major level.
Pre-med is competitive at all of the UCs. We looked at CHP and found that there was a lot of bureaucracy and red tape in order to take advantage of the benefits. It has been a couple of years but, if I recall correctly, only a limited amount of pre-med courses are offered as honors and a student is limited to the number of honors courses they can take per quarter. We were told at the CHP Honors Experience Day that you can only take honors courses in your college and priority registration is only for courses within your college (which made us decide against it). Again, things may have changed but I would read the small print and ask questions to make sure you able to get what you want out of CHP.
Thanks for your reply.
Now let me add one other important factor. Given that the difficulty level is comparable between the 2 schools, if going to UCI can save me a large sum of money, would it be a no-brainer?
If he attends UCI, my son has the option of staying with family, so zero housing and meals cost. If it was your child, would your recommend UCI in this scenario?
We have saved enough to pay for our son’s expenses for 3 of the 4 years at UCLA. So that means that we’ll need to borrow money for the 4th year. Of course not having to borrow (if attending UCI) is great, too.
Major is Biology. Career aspiration is medicine/research/public health. We’re at the Bruin Day right now, will visit UCI next weekend.
Thanks,
You’ve been saving a lot if you have 3 years already saved up. Do you think you can just absorb some of the costs each year and pull about 75% of a years expenses from the savings? We had a similar choices a few years ago - Davis would have been about $40k less over 4 years and UCSB about $24k. Between our savings and help from grandparents, we probably had about 3 years of expenses. UCLA was an easy choice for our son and he had 100% approval from us. It depends on your finances though and how difficult it will be to cover the last year. If you can absorb about $7000 per year and get the rest from savings, it should work out. Any chance for financial aid? UCLA has helped some since we have 2 in college at the same time which has been greatly appreciated. Frankly, at the time we didn’t really look at the overall savings because we had planned for full pay at the UCs and anything else was gravy. Anything that cost more than a UC we did look at the overall savings.
I agree. If you can finance 75% for each year and he can use federal loans, work study, anything else (job, savings, graduation money…) then UCLA should be a no brainer.
Based on the tax info we provided on the FAFSA, our son gets no financial aid. They think we make too much money. Funny, we don’t feel rich at all, LoL We’ve been putting money into a 529 account, that’s how we’re able to cover for the first 3 years. We estimate that we’ll be short about $25000 for the 4th year’s expense. If our son decides on UCLA, we are planning to take out a small loan & 0% interest credit card offer. So you guys still recommend UCLA? Son is leaning heavily that way. I put no pressure on him either way.
Thanks!
I bet somehow you figure it out without taking out loans if you already have 3 years saved. Also consider convenience for him with early or late classes, ability to stay on campus late for possible research, study groups, etc. if he went to UCI for a year in the dorms, what is the likelihood he wants to move out of the house during the subsequent years after having been on his own for a year and gotten a taste of independence?
staying off campus, as in your example with UCI, involves additional costs like parking, gas, car maintenance, or bus costs (not recommended in Irvine). Monthly parking isn’t that bad at Irvine (probably no more than $90 a month) but it adds up. I doubt if CHP at Irvine would be any easier than UCLA. My niece is CHP at UCI, I think she mentioned you have to have a 3.6+ in order to remain in CHP? Registration priority is a big plus though. It’s a tough call.
Which college does your son want to attend? I think this should be one of the first questions to ask. I also don’t think you get the full college experience living at home with relatives. Maybe I am in the minority here at CC but I think 4 years of college is much more than getting an undergraduate degree, but also participating in the full college experience (e.g. living on your own, becoming an adult, joining in school activities and clubs, school spirit, excellent alumni and networking opportunities, learning with your academic peers, D1 sports (UCLA), quality internships, location, etc.).