UCLA or UCSD?

[teagkni]

I was accepted to both UCLA and UCSD, pre-PolySci for UCLA and PolySci: International Relations plus Regent Scholarship for UCSD. If forced to decide between the 2, which should I go with?

UCLA pros:
-more prestigious/lower admit rate
-better athletic teams to root for
-people seem to like it more than UCSD, quality of life rating is higher

UCSD pros:
-Regent Scholarship comes with perks (are they considered to be good perks, or do they not make much of a difference?)
-I live by the beach now, so 10 minutes from the beach is a huge plus
-Div II athletics, which means a possible chance at playing tennis there
-multiple college system, which seems like it would give a “smaller-community” feel to the large campus

I don’t know much about the difference in quality between their respective PolySci programs, so I don’t know how to weigh that in. I really want a good education, but also a good quality of life, and I am a little distraught as to how much people dislike UCSD.

Any advice or input?

[baktrax]

For what it’s worth, I chose UCSD over UCLA and was happy with the decision. I made great friends at UCSD and never wanted for more things to do. I had friends who went to UCLA and wished they had chosen other schools instead, and I had friends who went to UCLA and enjoyed it. I think it just depends on the people. It’s certainly not universal that quality of life is higher at UCLA. I know some students who were miserable there (and of course, others who love it).

Regents is very nice though. You can’t beat priority registration, and the research opportunity as a first year is nice, although I don’t know if the poly sci department participates in that.

There is very little sports pride at UCSD, though, so if that is something that is important to you for the experience, then that’s definitely something to consider. It sounds like you’re leaning towards UCLA though, which is a fine choice. You don’t have to force yourself to go to UCSD if you’d rather go to UCLA.