<p>So in my situation I am admitted to UCSB and UCSD ChemE Program. However I have no Idea which shcool should I go. SB has a better major, and SD has a better overall school ranking. Which one is better?</p>
<p>And also Im on the waitlist of UCLA ChemE. If I could be admitted, which one is the best one? Thank you guys!</p>
<p>tbh im not to sure about this either but i think by program, UCLA is the best, then SD, then SB, but i feel they all have strong programs anyways. if you want prestige id probably be SD but then again its about the overall school, with location n stuff as well.</p>
<p>SB. Their ChemE department is at the very very top.</p>
<p>As a whole, UCLA and UCSD are better than UCSB. However, UCSB is much stronger than UCLA and UCSD in ChemE. Also, UCSD’s ChemE program is still new, so you should not go to UCSD. Go to UCSB if you do not get off UCLA’s waitlist.
If you do get off UCLA’s waitlist, you should decide whether you want to go to UCSB or UCLA. Both schools cover pretty much same materials (2 quarters of thermodynamics, 3 quarters of transport processes, 1 quarter of seperation processes, …), and you cannot go wrong at either school. In term of academic program, UCSB beats UCLA. What other factors do you consider? Only you know what school better fits you. </p>
<p>The rankings don’t really matter as they pertain only to these schools’ graduate programs. They’re highly unlikely to affect the quality of the undergraduate curricula at any of these UCs. I suggest that you choose the school you wish to attend based on how much you like the campus and how good a fit it is for you.</p>
<p>@LaysOriginal I went to transfer Friday of UCSB. And the engineering staff are very enthusiastic and helpful. They told me their ChemE class size is about 40-50 level which is a very small size(I dont know if its true). And I have no idea with UCSD (faculty to student ratio, research chance and so on). My biggest worry is what factor is more important to employers, ranking of school or program? If I apply to graduate school, will major ranking palys bigger role in admission than school ranking?
@CSB111 I learnt that SB has the best ChemE program among these three in GRADUATE level. However I have no idea with their undergraduate. </p>
<p>@Cayton Since Im not decide yet if I would apply for graduate program. My biggest worry is what factor is more important to employers, ranking of school or program? If I apply to graduate school, will major ranking palys bigger role in admission than school ranking?</p>
<p>@hanny0828 </p>
<p>Employers generally care about where you went to school, not the program ranking.</p>
<p>And perhaps rankings will matter for grad school programs. I’m not sure. Talk with a counselor about that.</p>
<p>Both UCLA and UCSB are excellent, and employers and graduate schools treat Chemical Engineering students from UCLA and UCSB equally. I just advise you not to go to UCSD since (as I mentioned before) UCSD’s ChemE program is still new. UCSD’s program offers only 12 upper division ChemE classes and is not biology-oriented. Hence, if you want to work or do research in biotechnology industry, UCSD is not a good choice.</p>
<p>I would go with UCSB, it’s well known for Chem E. But I disagree with poster who posted that UCSD is not a good choice for biotech, au contraire, I think it’s the hub of biotech.</p>
<p>What I meant was UCSD does not train chemical engineers who want to work in biotechnology industry. A biologist develops a small-scale cell culture or baterial process that is producing a recombinant protein, and a chemical engineer scales up such process to produce the desired protein in a large scale. I read catalogs of three schools and did not see any biochemical/biotechnology engineering courses.
UCSB offers these biochemical/biotechnology engineering courses:
CH E 125. Principles of Bioengineering
CH E 154. Engineering Approaches to Systems Biology
CH E 170. Molecular and Cellular Biology for Engineers
CH E 171. Introduction to Biochemical Engineering
CH E 179. Biotechnology Laboratory
UCLA offers these biochemical/biotechnology engineering courses:
104D. Molecular Biotechnology Lecture: From Gene to Product
104DL. Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory: From Gene to Product
C115. Biochemical Reaction Engineering
C125. Bioseparations and Bioprocess Engineering
CM127. Synthetic Biology for Biofuels
CM145. Molecular Biotechnology for Engineers
UCSD does not offer any biochemical/biotechnology engineering courses.</p>
<p>Did you look under Chemical Engineering or Bioengineering or Nanoengineering
I found this link that have more or less the same courses you listed.
<a href=“Bioengineering”>http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/courses/BENG.html</a>
and it has the California center for Algae BioTechnology, perhaps not all under chemical engineering.</p>
<p>
UCSB is highly undergrad focused. Of the 22k student body about 18.5 k are undergrads. There are a total of 1400 engineering undergrads and 750 grad students. It is a small and amazing department.</p>
<p>@DrGoogle OK, I take my words back. 
I am also a ChemE major, so I look at what courses ChemE department offers at each school and fail to notice other Engineering departments. Those biochemical engineering courses I listed are offered by ChemE Departments at UCSB and UCLA. I just did not expect ChemE students at UCSD to take Bioengineering courses to work in biotechnology industry.
Anyway, I am not sure whether employers and graduate schools care more about major ranking or more about school ranking. However, I believe both employers and graduate schools know UCSB is better than UCSD in ChemE. </p>