<p>So I am a senior in high school and I got accepted into both UCSC and UCD. With only a month left to declare where i want to go, i am getting a little stressed out...
Ok, so here's the deal, I LOVE UCSC..it is totally my crowd of people and the campus environment is absolutely amazing. However, i know UCD has more academic prestige. I am pretty serious about school, and want to go to a college that will set me up well for life. So basically, I would pick UCSC in a heartbeat over UCD, except for the fact that its academics aren't known for being as good as UCDs. So, my question is...how much prestige does UCD have over UCSC? Will it make a big difference in how future employers see me? Even though i love UCSC, would it be more worth it to go to Davis because of the academics?
Thanks! </p>
<p>How do you know the academics at UCSC aren’t as strong as those at UC Davis? Have you compared course syllibi, spoken to multiple professors at both schools, talked to students who’ve attended both, etc? Or are you just basing your assumptions about rigor on the selectivity of the respective institutions and what high schoolers say about UCD versus UCSC?</p>
<p>I’m like you, I vastly prefer Santa Cruz to Davis. I’d suggest choosing UCSC since you clearly prefer the school and one choice is not obviously academically superior to the other (when I say obviously academically superior, I’m referring to the differences between say, English at UC Berkeley vs English at San Jose State).</p>
<p>I suppose Davis is marginally more prestigious than Santa Cruz, but it’s not like anyone’s going to be saying “Wow” and offering you a job on the spot if you tell them you went to Davis. </p>
<p>Go to Santa Cruz unless Davis has a particular program you’re really interested in.</p>