<p>Hey, I've seen this topic around a lot and I've gone through all of them, but I haven't found answers yet.</p>
<p>So my biggest factor is setting. I haven't visited UCSD yet, but I definitely plan to before May 1st, which is when SIRs are due. I'm from Bakersfield where the weather is super dry and there are only two seasons: summer and winter, haha.
I'm looking for a place where summers are sunny, yet breezy so the rays don't burn you. And I can generally stand the cold, so winters can be whatever.</p>
<p>I'm leaning more towards UCLA because it's more prestigious, but I really don't think I should be dwelling on that fact. I've read that the graduate cogsci program at UCSD is climbing to the top - it's actually rank 3 and tied with Harvard. BUT that's the graduate program... not too sure about undergrad program.
Plus, my older sister attends UCLA so my parents really want me to go with her so when we travel home it'll be easier and stuff...
And I want change, I want to be challenged to a completely new set-up, one where IF I allow my parents to come visit me, I can show them around a place I call home and am familiar with and have become accustomed to. My family visits LA and Orange County a lot because of extended family and my sister because she's at UCLA, so I'm kind of used to some areas and it's become boring and too familiar.</p>
<p>I don't really want to come back home or have them come to me, but I'm thinking it might just be a phase because I haven't really experienced being away from home for like a year or +. I'm just realllly confused. Hailp.</p>