I was recently accepted into UCSB and UCI. My major at UCSB is Biochemistry and my major at UCI is Biological Sciences (I would change to biochemistry later). I’d like to go to medical school one day, or continue a graduate degree, but haven’t decided quite yet. How’d you compare the schools based on these criteria:
Academics (also, is one school harder than the other)
Research Opportunities
Location
Student Life/Social
Any thing else worth mentioning??
Thank you!
I think they are similar with respect to academics and research opportunities. You need to take the initiative at both schools.
Location - obviously the locations are very different but that is something you can easily find on their websites. UCSB is not located in the city of Santa Barbara but is about 15-20 min north. It has an adjacent college town called Isla Vista.
Student Life/Social - I think this is the biggest difference between the two schools. UCSB has a party school reputation and UCI has a commuter school reputation. At one school, the social scene builds as the weekend approaches and, at the other, the social scene starts to die down as the weekend approaches. Just my two cents.
Visit the campuses.
I’ll be visiting them next month! I just want to get the gears turning to make my decision a little easier
@Kout737 I was accepted to both and I chose UCI. I’m having a lot of fun here. Both schools are similar in terms of academics and research so it really ends up being what you are looking for. UCSB has a lot more parties and pubs, and UCI is much more laid back and is much more “nerd friendly” from what I’ve seen. If you like partying, drinking, and going out late with your friends UCSB is definitely miles better for stuff like that. In UCI you would have to try a lot harder to do that, as most things close at 10 PM and it is more of a family oriented city so there are a lot of restrictions. UCI has a lot more activities and gatherings for things that I have an interest in. There is an eSports Arena, gaming-culture is big, and the events for my major (comp sci) are awesome here (like HackUCI). I don’t drink, I don’t go wild with parties or anything like that. I’m a quiet guy, I mostly hang out with my friends during the day and at night we gather in a dorm room and play games (or we play online), because that is what makes me happy. In terms of location, UCI is a safe quite city, it’s extremely close to Newport beach if you’re craving for some late-night fun, and you can go to LA and San Diego within 45min-1hr drives. Everyone has a season pass and goes to Disneyland.
In the end it depends on what you like :). Both schools are great and you can’t go wrong, it just depends on what kind of a person you are.
I’m having trouble deciding too… so I got into UCI’s Business Administration program( the school sent me an email says that this year the UCI Merage School of Business had over 11,000 applicants for only 280 seats),
and UCSB’s Pre Econnomics&Accounting (got in as a top applicant, was invited to the Chancellor reception.)
Also got into Fordham LC (Global Finance and Business Economics), Penn State main(Finance), PITT (Finance), and UMass-Amherst (finance w $12k a year) Any advice? Thank you so much!
@yqyq19If If you are interested in business UCI is truly an excellent choice. The Paul Merage Business School at UC Irvine is the real deal. Your access to the resources that students at Merage have is truly priceless. Visit the school and ask about all the resources you will have at Merage. Also, you will be surrounded by very competent students, faculty, advisors, and administrators that will contribute greatly to your college experience.