UCI CHP vs UCLA vs UCB

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Irvine
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** “Quick” Profile (originally intended as TL;DR)**

Strengths:

  • All-around academically
  • motivated + excited (new experiences)
  • good health
  • high familial support

Weaknesses:

  • HS course load realized to be underwhelming
  • few extracurriculars to fit into schedule
  • not historically proactive/disciplined, esp. junior year (working on it)
  • long-term peer relationship experience almost nonexistent (attended half dozen different schools + preferred to socialize with staff/parents)
  • unnecessarily comprehensive/inefficient judgment/decision-making,
  • was “homeschooled” so will be only 17 for most of freshman year

Both:

  • many past failures to learn from
  • schooling experience that is …unique
  • likes to learn by self (productively or otherwise)

Other:

  • full financial aid coverage
  • close to UCLA + UCI (but most likely will live on-campus)

Primary worry: regretting taking on too much or conversely, missing opportunities
Goals: Self-development, meeting people, enriching experiences, graduate school

A simplified way I see is that
UCI offers support and flexibility with CHP + School of Undeclared/Undecided, cushioning if my current self-perceptions/expectations are too high
while UCLA/UCB offer more prestige-related perks (name, peers + faculty, networking, etc.), more opportunity if I could handle it

Privilege of UCI CHP relative to campus vs. UCLA/UCB’s teaching/prestige/networking

[size=150]**End “Quick” Profile **/size

INTRODUCTION
Hi! I was admitted into UCI CHP, UCSD, UCLA, and UCB.

Undeclared for all as have the vaguest of ideas for my future (wants to learn and help other people). Good at math and interested in psychology but want to try some STEM-area classes.

Family lives about an hour from UCLA and 40 min from UCI (discounting traffic). EFC is currently 0 but more income expected in future.
I expect to have 42-48 credits from AP exams although I don’t think they will be of much use.

UCI CHP (Campuswide Honors Program – honors.uci.edu) consists of ~2.5% of UCI students. Along with required in-depth, small-group honors classes, it offers 4 yrs of exclusive CHP housing and advising (nice liberal-arts-college-type qualities). And priority class registration! (sorry other Anteaters)
UCI also has the School of Undecided/Undeclared and non-impacted majors so all except Pre-Med would be accessible for majoring, so there would be a lot of flexibility in choosing a major (and more optimal scheduling with priority registration).

My Background + Personal Concerns
I was in an online public for much of high school and skipped freshman year there (online school is structured …extraordinarily), so I was not exposed to many things (didn’t act proactively to my great regret). I am however attending physical school for senior year. Much to my surprise, there were in existence IB students (and indeed, regular ones) who slept 4-6 rather than 8-9 hours a night. (three years schooling online and no utilization of College Confidential, Quora, or Reddit to learn about real world, sigh)

My HS seems to have an average or slightly above amount of competitiveness. My senior course load consists of AP EnvSci, an art class (no work as high-level class but mostly freshman registered), AP US Gov, IB English (opposite of Art, high pulse), AP Calc AB, and IB Bio, but I have few commitments and manage >7 hrs of sleep a night. (allowed to get feel of IB second sem; will take only AP exams while assigned IB exam prep work)

As one may tell by the length of this post, there is a compelling to be overprepared/perfectionistic (although it’s not efficient), which may stem from some insecurity of not having enough information. This pattern would change with extreme college time pressure, for better or worse.

For all I know, online school may have severely inflated my GPA (few assignments, so a lot of free/studying time) as reflection of effort and my senior year load may be far lower than my college load (grades usually slip in college whether from grading curve or structure where a couple assignments/exams make or break or just sheer difficulty). I don’t really know how I would fare in a really competitive atmosphere.

The bulk of extracurriculars (unless you count video games as well) I had in HS consisted of some tutoring and working with disabled. I would like to try many sports, clubs, or other opportunities in college. My goal for freshman year is to enjoy myself (as much as possible, anyways) and try new things.

Reasoning
I am concerned that I would get stressed out; I have great deal of uncertainty about the level of stress and my ability to manage it (confidence that I can handle it would come from naïve assumptions; any satisfactory assessment would need a lot of outside input, hence my trying CC). For example, I have had minimal experience drinking coffee (seems like good habit to pick up though) or living sleep-deprived (although I will try to avoid low-sleep nights, my current discipline + time management ability is doubtful in avoiding it).

I would be able to get more counseling + professors’ time at UCI and closer peer community. At UCLA, I would have to be more proactive at the risk of developing an inferiority complex from the competition.

The support system in UCI’s CHP seems enticing for navigating college and establishing relationships, but it is plausible that I would drop out (don’t know what to expect from it or myself). Thus, there is a kind of safety net at UCI.
At UCLA/UCB, it is competitive and sink-or-swim so I would be pressured to give 100% (if I fail, recovery/modifications would be difficult).

I want to attend an excellent graduate school so undergrad should go as smooth as possible.
UCLA - there is room to expand, but I might be too ambitious and crash to a low GPA in disillusionment/disappointment
UCI – I would be already near the peak but the flexibility and support could cushion me if necessary.

I will be visiting UCLA and UCI campuses a couple more times (Bruin Day, etc.) + doing more research before deciding. I honestly have not looked much into UCB or UCSD as family prefers close to home, but have them here for comparison.

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And how would CHP compare with UCLA’s honors program?

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I was in CHP for my first year and dropped out after Fall Quarter of my second year. In my opinion, it is not as great as it seems. The priority enrollment is definitely a great perk but you already have so many AP units, you should have a higher class standing than your peers for enrollment anyway. The main reason why I dropped was because of the core classes they required me to take that I didn’t actually need because my AP credits satisfied those GE requirements. I was essentially paying money for classes I didn’t need to take. Also, the core classes are more difficult and might lower your GPA whereas you could get an easy A in many of the other GE’s offered outside of CHP. After my first year, I was involved in many other things on campus (fraternity, campus job) so I realized that CHP was barely apart of my life despite it being a key reason why I chose UCI. I lived in the honors hall so I made a lot of honors friends but many of my closer friends dropped CHP and I feel like I would have had the same community feel in any other hall. Trust me, there many opportunities to make great friends outside of CHP.

Also a note about UCI is that the campus is separated by “schools” like School of Social Sciences, School of ICS etc., where each has their own graduation requirements and administration. So it can be a little bureaucratic trying to declare a major or declare a double major. I believe UCLA has a college of letters and science which hosts a majority of the majors on campus so there’s less of this separation that UCI has.

Don’t underestimate yourself. If you got into UCLA then the admissions team clearly saw the potential in you out of the 90,000+ applicants. Both campuses will have stress, college in general is stressful. You are learning how to be on your own as well as determine your future. There are many resources (peers, RA, counseling) to help you cope with stress and other problems you may have. I think you should strongly consider which campus you see yourself at everyday and if it has your programs of interest academic wise and EC wise. Lastly, think about if you want to be in a more urban, fast-paced city (LA) or suburban, relaxed city (Irvine).

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@brendans406

Thanks for sharing your personal experience in the chp. I was wondering if could shed some light on the honors chemistry sequence chp students are required to take. It seems like the class would be extremely competitive as it is comprised of the top 1% of chemistry students and therefore much more difficult to get an A in. It sounds like the humanities and social science core classes would also be much more competitive than taking regular GE classes, Is the competition the reason students drop out of chp? What percentage of chp freshman drop out of the program? For someone considering graduate/medical school, would you recommend taking the regular route over chp? I love the idea of being surrounded with like-minded individuals but just not sure if the benefits outweigh the burden of extra classes and risk of a lower gpa. I would essentially be taking the core courses only to stay in chp as most of those breadth requirements would already be satisfied with AP classes taken in hs.

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Hi @suehyin and @indecisivehuman . First off, congrats on getting into 3 amazing schools. I’m currently 2 weeks away from completing my freshman year at UCI. I was admitted as a CHP student, and struggled a bit my first quarter. But after that, my grades shot up, and now I’m even considering doubling in chemistry, and minoring in math (currently a bio major). The research opportunities here are ample, intense, and getting involved/leadership positions is not too competitive. I have already got myself a leadership position and a research position. As a fellow pre-med, I can say that the atmosphere is competitive, but rewarding. Don’t be intimidated. You got this. Hit me up if you have any more questions or want to learn more. I’ll try my best :slight_smile:

Note: about the honors chem and humanites core classes, you couldn’t be happier. I definitely am very happy. The classes are challenging, but are on a straight scale. If you get the points, you get the grade. The professors are fantastic, and the student:faculty ratio is worth every penny.As I said, don’t be intimidated. I was too scared of AP English and took regular english in high school. Despite that, I’m haven’t gone below a 90% in my humanities core classes. Sociai sciences core may be a different beast, and I am yet to experience it. It’s a learning process for both of us haha