Hello!!! So this has bothered me for a while now…and I would appreciate anyone’s opinion and why. I have been accepted to UCSD and UCSB for Psychology and Brain Sciences, and I can’t decide between the two. Both are by the beach, both are good in STEM (I just don’t know which one is better, or more prestigious, or more respected/admired/easier to get a job after graduating), and both offer a choice between getting a B.S. or B.A. in my major. I am paying full price in both, so affordability isn’t an issue here for me. I live in LA, so distance is also not an issue (since both are about the same distance from my city).
Help!!! Thanks in advance!
Better read those department pages again. UCSB does not offer a B.A. Degree in psychology to students not already enrolled in the program since they are phasing it out.
As far as getting a job, I can’t think of any careers that require an undergrad degree in psychology the way they do for a degree in engineering or accounting for example. Employers are going to view these two schools as pretty similar. The difference in your future is going to be the grades you earn as well as other things you do such as finding internships. The students with the liberal arts degree they get a boost in the job search from their school name are ones that went to schools that were really difficult to get admitted to. Essentially the college has already done a lot of screaming
According to https://www.psych.ucsb.edu/undergrad/psychological-brain-sciences-bs , the UCSB prerequisite courses are curved so that about 35% earn a B- or better grade. A 2.7 GPA in the prerequisites is needed to enter the psychological and brain sciences major.
In contrast, UCSD psychology is not a capacity-limited major, according to https://students.ucsd.edu/academics/advising/majors-minors/capped-majors.html . The department web pages at http://www.psychology.ucsd.edu/undergraduate-program/majors-effective-fall-2015/index.html do not appear to specify any GPA or grade minimums.
Well, they’ve probably done that too, but I meant to type “screening” :)>-