I am deciding between UCLA and UCSB and right now I’m at a loss. Can you guys help me out. Let me know pros and cons of each school. Financial aid is not a problem for me. I’m more concerned about like academic environment, social life, food around area, and other certain aspects of each school. Thank you.
Both of the schools have similar academic environments, but UCLA is more intense. UCSB has a bigger party scene. Both schools have great food, but UCLA consistently ranks 1st in the nation and you are in Beverly Hills. You need to factor in size. UCLA is huge, what size do you want? Do you want a more “work hard/play hard” school like UCLA or a school with intense social life like UCSB? Are athletics big for you? UCLA has more school spirit and big sports games.
Both schools are great, you need to ask yourself these questions to figure out which is a better fit. Have you toured both schools?
Thank you for responding! So in terms of size, I don’t really mind so either one would be okay. And I do like the work hard play hard scene but I’m worried that I might not do well. I do like to party but I don’t want to get caught up in the party life. I do like the fact that UCLA has great athletics. I know that their games with the other pac 12 schools are intense. That is a plus over Santa Barbara for me but with Santa Barbara, their rival school is cal poly and cal poly waitlisted me so i have to think about that too haha. I plan on visiting UCLA very soon and that should help me decide and I’ve lived at Santa Barbara and fell in love with their campus. As of right now, I’m kind of leaning more towards UCLA because of some of these factors. A lot of my friends and family are encouraging me to go to UCLA as well. Some of my other friends are making very valid points as to why I should go to UCSB haha. I do like the idea of 3 years of guaranteed housing at UCLA and I’m not too sure how that works for UCSB but it’s definitely a hard choice for me.
@sopektra It sounds like your head is telling you one thing and your heart is telling you another. Hopefully you’ll have a stronger feeling one way or another after you spend time on UCLA’s campus. Congrats of having such great options!
@BayAreaRecruiter thank you so much
Expanding on this topic, what would your opinion be if the choice is UCSB with a Regent’s scholarship (and therefore class/dorm priority) or UCLA without Regents?
@parentlsju88 I think that would make my opinion lean more towards UCSB because I’ve heard that applying for classes in UCLA is difficult, but I still wouldn’t know.
There isn’t a wrong choice here, a quick tour while school is in session will make for a favorite. Have you spent any time on both campuses?