It’s getting really close to May 1st and I haven’t given any thought to which college I want to go to for undergrad in the fall and I need some help deciding. I got into USD, UCSD, UCSB, UCSC, and Santa Clara University. I live in Norway and my first choice is actually law school here so these colleges are kind of my plan B. Regardless, I need to enroll somewhere before the deadline and I won’t know about my admission to law school here in Norway until July 20th.
I received a pretty good merit scholarship at USD and was accepted into the honors program there. I think the academically best/most prestigious school I got into is UCSD. I really just applied to schools that have nice campuses by the beach (in retrospect maybe not the best selection strategy, haha) and now I’m really unsure where I actually want to go. I’m thinking that my best options would be USD or UCSD because of the scholarship to the former and the prestige of the latter, but there are still other costs that I need to consider. Does anyone know anything about these colleges and what would be the strategically best decision? To me the actual major doesn’t make a huge difference, I’m inclined to study anything that has to do with societies or languages so this doesn’t really affect my decision.
I am also thinking of returning to the US after hopefully getting my Norwegian law degree to take the bar in CA or NY so networking is also something I need to think about if I want to practice law at a US firm. That’s where I’m assuming the honors program at USD could help; I’ll be able to socialize with professors etc. Anyway, I really don’t know a lot about any of these universities since I grew up in Norway where all universities offer quite excellent education and are free, so I haven’t had to think about this. All comments and help are welcomed and appreciated.
USD has a law school, so maybe mingling with faculty there would help. In terms of pure social sciences, though, I think UCSD has the best program/professors and connections. The PoliSci, Econ and IR departments are particularly strong. Also, I know a surprising amount of Norwegian guys here which might be comforting for you? Have you considered going to law school in America, by the way?
I have considered that, but it takes fewer years (and is cheaper) to get a Norwegian law degree first and then take the bar in the US than getting a full law degree in the US first and then returning to Norway for certification, because I’d have to go through the full 5 years of law school again, as you can only practice here with a Norwegian law degree. I think that what’s making this hard for me is that UCSD is obviously the better school, but the difference in tuition is so big between what I’d pay at USD and the out of state tuition at UCSD so it’s kinda hard not to think about that.
I read this about UCSD on reddit, is it true?:
" As others have mentioned, the quarter system is brtual, the classes (at least the ones I’ve taught), require an unbelievable amount of work and yet manage to do a pretty terrible job at actually teaching, and the culture on campus is incredibly competitive and work obsessed. Anxiety, depression, and other stress induced psychological conditions account for the vast majority of visits to the campus health services (according to people I’ve spoken with there). And there’s nothing to do near campus. Essentially no bars, no nightlife, few restauraunts, etc.
I’m not saying its impossible to have a balanced life as an undergrad at UCSD, but you’d be the exception. You would need to be aggressively motivated and capable of finding friends, activities, social opportunities etc. while also balancing that with your extremely demanding academic life. Part of that would probably involve accepting the fact that you would not be on a level playing field with your classmates who have no lives."
@kaiakjos parts are true, parts are definitely not. Imo:
- quarter system is brutal: true. It’s really fast. You’ll have midterms for some classes weeks 4 and 6, for others weeks 3, 5, and 7, for others week 5 and 8…meaning you could have midterms any week, and often several within the same week.
- terrible job at teaching: false. At least in my degree program, I’ve had some brilliant professors like Judy Kim, Prashant Mali, Ali Behzadan, Christian Metallo, Stephanie Fraley.
- culture on campus is competitive and work obsessed: partly true. people, especially in stem fields, are really motivated. a more useful question than “how are you doing” is “what are you working on”
- anxiety, depression: everyone struggles with something at some point. I know plenty of people with these conditions at UCSD, plenty of people without em at UCSD, plenty of people with them at other schools. hit or miss.
- nothing to do near campus: false. for non-nightlife, there’s a lot of shopping, hiking, surfing, and eating to be done. UTC mall is within a mile of campus, downtown La Jolla is nice for brunch. As far as nightlife, PB is a few miles out (not walking distance) but it’s great for college students to club/bar hop/drink, downtown SD attracts a slightly older crowd but is still great energy. Obviously these are things that USD students can take advantage of too, but USD is mostly houses and strip malls in the surrounding area and afaik has a less active social life than either UCSD or SDSU.
Most people I know are actually able to find that balance. Yes, the classes are unseasonably hard compared to most universities, even. But everyone I’ve met leaves a more capable, intelligent, well-rounded individual. Some people don’t make it and that’s sad, but that’s life.