I heard Cal is harder to get into than UCLA and more prestigious, but at the same time, Cal students are over-competetive and that UCLA students are more relaxed/fun to be around.
Honestly the two schools are so similar that I don’t know what to think, just relying on what I’ve heard. Any thoughts?
Thanks
This is coming from a UCLA grad; who picked ucla over berkley and 'sc. The feeling you get being on campus at UCLA is incomparable to anything else. You’re in the middle of one of the best cities in the world, attending the most applied university in the world. Food is great, IN-N-OUT right by campus along with other awesome local eateries that can get pretty crowded. After touring Cal I got the feeling of hostility and coldness (coldness probably due to norcals climate lol) that wasn’t there at UCLA. UCLA was an easy choice for me. They are similar in the fact they are UC’s and both very competitive but they are starkly different in person. Good luck in your college endeavors, you’ll be fine with either one, both are amazing.
I had sons go to both UCLA and Cal. You can’t go wrong either way. To me, both campuses are beautiful. I like that UCLA has all the dorms basically in the same area. I personally prefer the semester system to the quarter system, but actually for my son that went to UCLA, the quarter system was probably better for him. Having finals three times a year is really hard. But, if you get a class you don’t like you get it over with faster. But since you get out later it makes getting summer jobs/internships etc… a little harder. What I like about Cal is that the football stadium is on campus, which makes “gamedays” really fun. Also it gives you, as an alumni, a reason to go back to campus. Both schools are academically strenuous. My son at Cal is having a great time, is very social and never complains about a hostile environment. I live in Southern California, and whenever I wear my “Cal” hat, no matter where I am, someone will say “Go Bears”, whereas that doesn’t happen nearly as often when I wear my UCLA hat.
Yes, I get where you’re coming from on the entire jobs/internship thing. If you do end up picking UCLA make sure you lineup interviews and try to get what’s left of the internships because most will be swooped up, be proactive.