I am looking for some help from the forum members in selecting a college for our daughter. Hope I get a response or two…
She has been accepted to following colleges: (Stanford did NOT offer admission)
UCI (Regents)
UCD (Regents)
UCR (Regents)
UCSD
UCLA
USC (Presidential scholarship as an NMF)
She is in a biology major and would certainly pursue a graduate degree (MS/MD/PhD etc). She doesn’t qualify for any need-based aid, but we will pay for her undergraduate studies to reduce her borrowings.
So far, we have eliminated -
UCD as it is too far from our home in Irvine
UCR as it was her safety school
UCSD as it doesn’t have any advantage over UCLA in absence of Regents/honors.
Now we are down to three choices and here is what we think.
UCI
pros:
she can stay at home and we get to see her everyday
no need to worry about class availability due to early registration available to honors students
many of her friends will go there too
may keep her GPA close to 4.0
in-state tuition fees
close to home where she has been since pre-K (all schools including UCI within 5 miles)
cons:
limited personal growth during college years due to stay at home?
university not ranked that high
research opportunities may be limited
USC
pros:
she can come home often
very good student-to-teacher ratio
small classes
scholarship reduces overall costs
I will have something in common with her as an alumni myself (class of 1992)
cons:
little higher fees
not so nice neighborhood (safety)
surrounded by a lot of rich kids who may not be serious students
UCLA
pros:
she can come home often
very highly ranked public university
beautiful campus, safe location
good research opportunities in biology department
qualified for honors program available for college of Letters & Sciences
in-state tuition fees
cons:
higher student-to-teacher ratio
too big of a campus where she may get lost
3 students per dorm room during first few years
We may not know many other necessary details, so hopefully some of your feedback may help us narrow down to one.
If she attends UCI, will she commute from home or live on campus during her first year?
For a mostly residential school like UCI, it is often favorable to live on campus during the first year, unless the extra cost causes affordability problems.
For class sizes, look at the on-line schedules for courses (particularly in her major) rather than relying on general assumptions. Since biology tends to be a popular major, expect class sizes to be larger than most (and there will be additional non-biology-major pre-meds in some of the courses as well).
Which of the pros and cons are her preferences, versus your (presumably the parent) preferences?
Affordability is not an issue if she wants to live on campus for the first year, but not sure if she will stay there.
Our older daughter who is graduating from UCI this year lived on campus for only two months and after that she mostly stayed at home at nights. She would go to her room for daytime breaks though. Similarly, her high school friend who was her roommate, also stopped living on campus.
According to our older daughter, class sizes at UCI were big for the first two years, but she was able to get all the classes she wanted. Currently, she has a very good GPA and decent MCAT score, but research work she has done may not be very impressive for college applications. There were a very few places for good research at UCI and many students were competing for them.
Our younger daughter is more interested in research during her studies, so UCI is not at the top of her mind.
As far as preferences are concerned, it is my wife’s only wish that she gets to see our daughter as much as possible. Rest of the pros/cons are shared by all of us.
Another pro and con you didn’t include on your list is that USC is a semester system and UCLA is a quarter system. Here’s a video explaining the pros and cons for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZcwXJ86-bE&t=388s
Since she is NMF is she eligible to live in the Mcarthy Honors dorm? She’ll meet a lot of hard working students there. Honestly, the USC you knew in the 90s now has a 13% admissions rate. There are a lot more serious students than spoiled rich kids. D15 has met a lot of kids from wealthy families, but they work very hard and don’t take it for granted.
I believe UCI is the best choice for your daughter , especially, if she is worried about her GPA (also considering the location proximity and Scholarship).
Competition is very fierce in UCLA. My daughter really struggled hard to maintain a high GPA in UCLA, eventhough she is a Regents Scholar in there (gratuating this quarter).
USC (if you still can afford 1/2 tuition) is also a good choice.
Thank you very much @ucbalumnus, @thomas4881, @jmek15 and @uclaparent9 for your valuable feedback. We plan on visiting these colleges during next three Saturdays to gather more information.
Our kids really enjoyed their years at USC. Students were serious and ranged from very wealthy to low income with generous FAid and everything in between.
My kids were able to get the courses they wanted at times that worked for them and could freely take courses in other fields as well.
The neighborhood is much nicer now than when my kids were there, especially as they’ve built University Village and more university housing.