UCLA vs UC Irvine vs UCSD

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
1

Hi everyone!

I’m having trouble deciding which school to go to. I am a transfer from CC who got accepted to all the UC’s I applied. I live in San Diego in a suburban city (north area). I did a lot of researches on which school to choose, asked this question on Quo ra, Reddit, SDN, and professors at my school. However, it didn’t help me that much on deciding the school. This is the information I had gathered so far. Major is biochemistry, the goal is to find a job and pay my loans(about 25k+ debt after graduation) while also going to grad, pharmacy or med school.
Cost of each of these UC’s: same for all the UC’s

UCLA-
Pros: Food is the best, fact that there is always something happening in the campus, Prestigious, heard there are internships opportunities for bio majors+they send the highest number of students for med school. More social.
Cons: Housing, security, grading inflation, traffic, overcrowding, rigorous coursework, competition

UCI-
Pros: Food is good, environment, more like suburban just as the city I’m living RN. I heard there are a lot of internships opportunities as they have tons of biotech companies near their university. It is social but UCLA is more. Most of my chem friends are going to UCI and they have the pharmacy program(something I look for).
Cons: competition, rigorous coursework, expensive living

UCSD
Pros: the ability to commute from my home within 30mins or less, I have so many friends who go to UCSD (high school & cc friends). Know the city of SD better, UCSD has internships and stuff.
Cons: Socially dead, highly competitive(they push you harder than other schools since they want to climb higher in the ranking), rigorous coursework.

Note: I don’t know why I put this school here, no plans of attending UCSD and I want to go out of SD city. However, I want to give an overview of what I look for. Also, I didn’t even apply to UCB since I know I would not go there even if I get accepted. My sister went for UCB for chem major, she told us it is highly competitive, best chem depart, can get a job right after graduation, overcrowded city and etc. Well, it was true, I did not like the vibe in there, it just made me feel pressured too much.

On the other hand, when I visited Stanford, I loved it there and liked the spacious environment, buildings, not so stressful surroundings and I get the same vibe from UCLA and little it bit from UCI but not from UCSD. I’m also in a doubt as deep down I want me and my cousin to go together to the same university. My cousin is going to UCI(got rejected from UCLA+ same major as me), we were planning to go together and thought of buying one bedroom apt to save money.

One thing that is really important for me is the Uni having new laboratories for bio+chem, not so many stressful surroundings, social (i wanna make some lifelong friends with having 2 years left), spacious environment, ability to maintain my GPA and FOOD.

Sorry for the long paragraph.
Thus, I need help with seeing the bigger picture here…

2

Moved to California colleges after seen the subthread
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/california-colleges/2141283-ucla-vs-uc-irvine-vs-ucsd-p1.html?new=1

3

@AeroDE . . .

True, I wouldn’t go on some of the other sites and mention UCLA as one of your options, as the vibe there is certainly against it. UCLA gets targeted by students from other colleges for whatever underlying reasons, especially the first one you mentioned which I will not state.

It sounds like you’ve done extraordinarily well in keeping cost down. I don’t know if cc was an active plan of yours when you graduated high school or whether it was primarily your only option with your finding your ability to study and get good grades in that environment, but in either case, congrats to you for doing extremely well.

And don’t worry about placement into an SOM as a cc graduate or attendee, because I’ve seen doctor CVs which state, e.g., Santa Monica College, UCLA, and UCLA SOM for their college educations, and there are doubtlessly Irvine Valley College, UCI, UCI SOM. (Sorry to have only matched colleges wrt geography.)

Good that you’re keeping your options open besides med school. UCLA does place the highest numbers perhaps in the country with > 500 (an adjusted number) being accepted in med school this year from the University, but it has ~ 50% acceptance rate. The other UCs have about that rate or a bit lower, but they’re over the national average of 40%.

The reason why UCLA and the other UCs don’t have higher rates of acceptances is probably because many are seeking admission to med school in the same year they graduate. If you’re in a hurry, then make sure that you practice your interview skills and make sure you don’t neglect the reading-comprehension section of your MCAT test, because as a biochem major, you’ll undoubtedly do well in the other three parts. The failure for UCLA and other UC students to gain admission is perhaps mainly attributable to their neglect of the comprehension part of the test, but I don’t think it’s a bad strategy to apply in the same year, though there will be others who say diametrically the opposite. Also, cast a wide net to all the SOMs across the nation as UCLA students do, or in your case as a UCI student.

There isn’t grade inflation at UCLA, but neither is it grade deflation. The curve at Berk and UCLA is not that bad. Just be sure to invoke due diligence in planning your courses because there will be some gpa-killer professors. Get feedback from your fellow biochem majors on who these are and look at the Bruinwalk site if you attend UCLA.

With respect to your college choice, if you can purchase that apartment near UCI, that’d be a good thing, and it might tip the scales to the zot crowd.

Best of luck!