<p>Hey all, I've got a TAG for UCI and am applying to an unimpacted major so hopefully I am in, but lately I've been struggling with which school I should choose, UCSD (already accepted) or UCI. I just got back from a long weekend in San Diego and La Jolla and I can tell you that they are beautiful cities. I love the atmosphere, the sun, the beaches, the extensive trolley system and clean downtown districts, but am not completely sold on UCSD. I keep telling myself that choosing SD seems like the best choice to make academically, as it generally ranks higher, but I'm not sure if it's enough. Likewise, after visiting SD, I find myself regretting choosing Irvine (my first love) and now have no idea what to do. I would greatly value any of your opinions.
Apart from finances (the difference in costs is almost nothing) and distance (I am about 1 1/2 hours from both schools), which university offers the better all around experience? While I know it's important to come to my own conclusion, I wonder where all of you would choose to attend if given both opportunities.</p>
<p>ucsd is right next to the beach. that is a good enough reason for me to pick ucsd over uci xD</p>
<p>UCSD would be my first choice if they offered my major. Love the San Diego area but Orange County is spectacular as well.</p>
<p>UCSD is generally regarded as superior academically, though both are well-regarded.</p>
<p>For some reason (unknown to me), students on college ranking sites seem unhappier at UCSD than at UCI. When I visited SD, I fell in love with the area/campus location. The student body ain’t much to look at, but whatever. Both schools have excellent gyms (score!) and really nice housing. Irvine is closer to home for me (Los Angeles), but San Diego has its perks (Pacific Beach, Hillcrest, Gaslamp). Irvine has an amazing sailing club/program (I like boats, okay?) and better classes at their gym. As for undergraduate education, they’re both probably somewhat equal. As a graduate school in my field, I’d choose SD over Irvine any day, though. However, for undergrads, they both house Calit2 centers and offer tons of research opportunities. I hear that both are incredibly competitive academically (in my major - biomedical computing/bioinformatics - as well as the other biosciences/engineering majors). I’m not sure what your major is, but I hope that this will help you make an informed decision!</p>
<p>Here’s some sources/links for you to peruse:</p>
<p>EDIT: It won’t let me post links to the following sites… so. Um…</p>
<p>I guess just check out the website students review and/or college p-r-o-w-l-e-r for UCSD and UCI</p>
<p>^ i really wonder why ucsd gets such horrid reviews. I mean, how much different is it than other uc’s that so many people are dissatisfied with their experience?</p>
<p>@twistnswif</p>
<p>I have no clue. Personally, I don’t really care about campus social life or whatever. SD has some pretty good bands playing in/around the area (similar to LA, but on a far smaller scale), so that’s cool. One one hand, UCSB’s weeklong ragers do have their appeal… but neither Irvine nor SD offers anything along those lines so it’s kind of a moot point.</p>
<p>As for being ultra-competitive… eh. Any major that’s either engineering-based or appealing to wannabe med students is going to be competitive. More the latter than the former, I’m kind of afraid of the type-A OCD-but-not-all-that-brilliant pre-med types (waaaaay over-represented in CCs). I don’t mind the eccentric and/or shy engineering types so much, and I met quite a few of those at SD AND at Irvine. It’s a toss up for me.</p>
<p>Well, I spent a quarter at UCI and I’ve taken a couple classes at UCSD (I live 40 minutes from UCI and 25-30 from UCSD.) </p>
<p>Neither campus will blow your mind away in terms of its social atmosphere, but UCSD does have the advantage of being on the beach in a nice area (La Jolla.) UCI, to me, seemed like a giant community college when I was there.</p>
<p>what major are you?? that would be the biggest factor IMO… both environments are great.</p>
<p>I’m a double in Anthro and English and from what I hear SD tends to favor their science departments while ignoring humanities and social sciences, so that is part of the confusion. I know Irvine anthro department generally ranks with the likes of UCB, UCLA, UofChicago and Princeton…</p>
<p>UCSD does have a very strong political science program, ranked above
UCLA in some cases.</p>
<p>Yeah UCSD’s poli sci department is very well regarded.</p>
<p>^ how hard would it be to change major to poli sci? Or double major in it?</p>
<p>Political Science isn’t impacted at UCSD, so it shouldn’t be too tough. You’d do it after being admitted under another major–file a petition to change majors.</p>
<p>UCSD political science is really a great option for liberal arts/humanities types. Far easier to get into than UCLA or Berkeley, with a department that is nearly as well-regarded. It has a reputation as a new, up-and-coming political science department that is already quite good.</p>
<p>EDIT:
This study places both UCSD and UCI above Berkeley and UCLA, as well as Yale, Princeton, and Georgetown.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.politicalstudies.org/pdf/psr/hix.pdf[/url]”>Political Studies – Social Science;
<p>Ucsd ftw!!!</p>
<p>Thanks for the response nick_scheu. So should I start trying to contact them now if I want to change majors, or in the fall when I actually attend? And any idea how difficult it would be to double major?</p>
<p>Someone may know better than I, but I believe the procedure at this point is to wait until you’re a current student, and then petition to change majors. It would be as though you were admitted as a freshman, declared a major, then changed your mind–the approval would be handled by the department, not by admissions. You could also petition to double major, but that may be harder to do. They don’t want you to get overwhelmed, so they may want you to get strong grades for a quarter or two.</p>
<p>Meh, I live in San Diego and I hate it here. My ex used to live a block or two from UCSD and that place was so dead. All of the students look like zombies.</p>
<p>Girls at UCI> Girls at UCSD</p>
<p>Poly sci/anthro at UCI = Poly sci/anthro at UCSD</p>
<p>Competitiveness at UCI < Competitiveness at UCSD</p>
<p>Boring area near UCI = Boring area near UCSD</p>
<p>It’s about equal you have to walk further at UCSD so take it for what it’s worth</p>
<p>^ But ucsd is by the beach and has zompos. So ucsd wins!</p>