<p>Hello, I am an international student from Russia and I got in UCSD-Warren(CompE), UCD(CompE&CS) and UCI(CompE&CS). Which one should I choose and why? I am interested absolutely in everything about each school: food (not a fan of fast-food), weather, dorms, social atmosphere, professors, "competiveness", environment, etc. Sadly, there is no opportunity for me to visit any of these.</p>
<p>I would really appreciate your help :)</p>
<p>Anyone? Please!..</p>
<p>Before I give my feedback, I will just say that I’m going to be a freshman Economics student at UCSD next fall at Warren. </p>
<p>Food: The food is pretty much the same at every school. They will have lots of options to choose from. It will be 45% fast food, 45% fast casual, and 10% casual dining. You will figure out what you like and what you don’t like upon eating several times at any college.</p>
<p>Weather/Location: UCSD- Sun 85% of the year, walking distance to the beach
UCI- Sun 85% of the year, a normal city that is close to LA
(personally i get a bad vibe about the UCI campus i don’t know why)
UCD- Sun 45% of the year. Does rain quite a bit, but mostly cloudy.
Very green. Close to forests.</p>
<p>Dorms: I can’t say much about the dorms. Dorms are Dorms. Nothing fancy or anything at all of these colleges. You can choose what kind of dorm you want at any college to fit your needs and specifications.</p>
<p>Social atmosphere- It is nearly the same at all of these colleges. I would rank them UCD-UCI-UCSD. To be honest, I feel that sports and location are the main things that shape a social atmosphere.
UCD- it’s so boring that it creates a social scene lol. close knit student body, frats, parties, school spirit, takes pride in their sports (even though they’re not that good)</p>
<p>UCI- probably the most boring campus if you ask me. It’s close to LA, so there’s tons of places to go and stuff to do if you have a car.</p>
<p>UCSD- the colleges are separated from each other. No big sports. Always something to do, but most fun things happen off campus.</p>
<p>I WILL SAY: Your social life is what you make of it. If you look for fun, you will have fun. Don’t let this be the only thing you look at in a school. Even if you go to the wildest college in the US, it’s not guaranteed that you will have fun. It is just up to you.</p>
<p>Professors: All schools have good professors.</p>
<p>Competitiveness: I’m not sure how you can measure this, but the only way I can see is to rank them. I believe competitiveness arises from the rank of your program. The better your program is considered, the more qualified/smart people you’ll attract to your school, and the more competitive it will become. Ranking them academically, it would be UCSD-UCI-UCD
Engineering at UCSD is pretty top notch. US News ranks UCSD #12, UCI #27, and UCD #31 for computer engineering. All good schools nonetheless. </p>
<p>Just do more research and choose a school that most fits you. Personally, I see UCSD being the best out of the three. Followed by UCD, and UCI. (In reality though, I would have to go with UCI over UCD because I would want to stay in southern california).
Good luck and I’ll answer other questions if you still have them</p>
<p>UCI is not close to Los Angeles. It is some 30 miles and can take an hour if the traffic is bad, as it is often.</p>
<p>30 miles is nothing. Most times, the traffic is heavier going out of Los Angeles, not into. All in all, it’s pretty close.</p>
<p>@SupplySide</p>
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<p>It’s sunnier year round in Davis than San Diego, so no.</p>
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<p>Well, it’s not like forests immediately surround the city. </p>
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<p>Describe to me how UCSD always has something do to and UC Davis is boring.</p>
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<p>Just to show you that I’m not picking on you on purpose, I agree with this. :P</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! The info you provided will definitely help :)</p>
<p>SupplySide, I am confused: what do you mean by “next fall”? Are you going to be a freshman this year?</p>
<p>I’m going to be a freshman this year, but I’ve gone to the campus like 25 times the past 2 years. I’ve been to UCI 5 times and Davis only once. I did most of the Davis and UCI with information i got from friends that have gone there.</p>
<p>@$KingsElite$
I’m 100% sure that San Diego has sunnier weather than Davis.
Davis was pretty much built on forests. While it may not be directly next to forests, I can honestly run from the campus to a nearby forest in less than 20mins.
The UC Davis being boring was a joke. I was trying to say that because the university is rather isolated from big cities, that the only thing to do was to create a social scene to make up for it. I specifically stated that UC Davis has the best social atmosphere than the other colleges at hand.
I typed this out rather quickly and can understand if it sounded confusing.</p>
<p>LOL… there are no forests around Davis. You’d have to run to Lake Tahoe to reach a forest; but then a again, what is your definition of a forest?</p>
<p>My family is from Sacramento and my sister graduated from UCD so I’m very familiar with the campus.</p>
<p>UCD is about 30 miles outside of Sacramento and has a very nice small college town feel. UCD is also approx 1.5 - 2 hours from San Francisco and Lake Tahoe; depending on traffic. Sorry, but although San Diego has nicer weather (cool ocean breeze) than Davis, Davis is also primarily sunny and hot all year except for the winter months when it rains and temp drops.</p>
<p>@SupplySide</p>
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<p>This data begs to differ.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/online/ccd/pctpos.txt[/url]”>http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/online/ccd/pctpos.txt</a>
[Sacramento</a>, California - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Sacramento, California - Wikipedia”>Sacramento, California - Wikipedia)
[Climate</a> of San Diego - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Climate of San Diego - Wikipedia”>Climate of San Diego - Wikipedia)</p>
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<p>I really have no idea where this forest you’re referring to could be. Where is it located?</p>
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<p>I don’t see UC Davis really that much more isolated than UCSD. I think it depends on what you want to do.</p>
<p>Having actually lived in Davis and having attended UCSD (and still attending), I’m pretty darn sure Davis is sunnier. It does rain a fair bit, but once you get through winter it’s blazing hot hot hot. Davis in general has more temperamental weather – it’s very hot or it’s really quite cold. San Diego has its fair share of cloudy days but mild, steady temperatures. Sunny San Diego seems a bit of a myth to me after 3 years here – sure we get some on/off sun throughout the day, but if you’re attending school here you better get used to the marine layer.</p>
<p>My brother got his undergraduate and graduate degree from Davis so I have been there many times. Exactly where is the forest at Davis? I must have missed it some how :)</p>
<p>Again, just a lack of clarification, but if you want to keep on arguing, go ahead. lol
You guys are misinterpreting my words. You guys are thinking I’m meaning warm/hot by using the word “sunny”. While temperature does tend to fluctuate more than Davis, there is more sun in San Diego. It is cloudy in San Diego with all the marine layer, but that goes away around midday most days.
It rained 3/6 days last time I was at Davis, with cloudy days the rest. Whether it is a rare occurrence or not, I don’t know, but I’ve gone to UCSD many times and nothing like that has ever happened.</p>
<p>As for the forest, i might have exaggerated the 20mins. I forgot that we did 30mins on bike before we started running. How far from UC Davis we got, i don’t know. I know a forest when I see one.</p>
<p>[Weather</a> Today - Weather Forecasts, Radar, Maps for 1000s of US and World Cities](<a href=“http://www.weathertoday.net/weatherfacts/numbersunny_bycity.php]Weather”>http://www.weathertoday.net/weatherfacts/numbersunny_bycity.php) - There is no “La Jolla” and “Davis” on here, but if you compare Sacramento to San Diego there are 188 sunny days in Sacramento per year compared to 146 days in San Diego. (data source <a href=“http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ccd-data/pctpos11.txt[/url]”>http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ccd-data/pctpos11.txt</a>)</p>
<p>On bestplaces.net, Davis is listed as 267 sunny days compared to San Diego’s 266. So at most, you can say that the amount of sunshine at both places is comparable. You can’t say that San Diego receives much more sunshine than Davis.</p>
<p>KingsElite cited the above data source which clearly compares the amount of sunny days and not the temperatures, so he/she wasn’t misinterpreting your words at all. And again, having lived in Davis for 10 years and gone to school at UCSD for 3 years, I can tell you that Davis is way sunnier than La Jolla. </p>
<p>It’s okay to give your opinion based on the however number of times you’ve visited both campuses. I’m sure that when you visited Davis it was raining. 6 days (or visits) just isn’t the best sample of the weather throughout the year. I’m giving my opinion just like you’re giving yours - please don’t take this as me trying to pick a fight!</p>
<p>@SupplySide</p>
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<p>The data I gave you lists hours and total percentage of sunshine. I didn’t misinterpret what you said. And I also agree with everything momosky said.</p>
<p>Thank you for the specific details about weather conditions 
I have one question that bothers me - is UCSD campus completely closed? I mean do I have to show an ID to go in the campus or just its facilities/buildings?</p>
<p>@lbrklsf</p>
<p>The campus is open. You don’t need to show an ID to get anywhere around campus, including buildings.</p>
<p>Before I get to anything substantial, I want to give my two cents about the weather at UCSD. This is my third year at UCSD and I can say with confidence that the sunny san diego weather everyone hears about is completely exaggerated. 80% of the time it’s windy and overcast. And no, the sun doesn’t always comes out in the afternoon. And if it does, it’s only out for 2-3 hours, and then it’s back to clouds and wind. It’s definitely not the 365 days of sunshine I was expecting as a 1st year haha but it’s definitely not terrible either. Just keep in mind that because of the wind chill, it always feels 5-10 degrees colder than what weather.com tells you</p>
<p>Housing at Warren is quite aesthetically pleasing (I’m talking about exterior, not interior because I’ve never been inside), there’s beach volleyball courts right next to freshman housing, and grassy slopes. And it’s location is terrific for compsci majors bc the CS labs are at Warren. </p>
<p>In terms of career opportunities for CS majors, there’s a ton. Most top companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Cisco, and whatnot come to the career fairs just for CS majors, they don’t accept resumes from other majors. Heck there’s even a career fair just for Engineers.</p>
<p>Socially, I’ve met my closest friends through students orgs - both greek and non greek, and from the people I was stuck with for 1st year housing. You’ll get your fair share of stuck up, self centered, and fake people anywhere you go, but based off of my experience, most UCSD students are genuinely really great people. As long as you put yourself out there, it’s not too difficult to find people you click with and have a great time with. I can definitely see how UCSD get a bad rep for being socially dead, but I think it’s partly because it’s so easy to stay in your room and not venture out. It’s a campus where you will have to put yourself out there in the beginning but once you’ve established your social life, there’s literally something going on every week. So don’t worry about getting bored :)</p>
<p>As far as food goes, Canyon Vista is pretty decent, but Muir’s Pines is probably the best dining hall on campus. There’s a good share of healthy food and vegetarian options if you’re worried about that .</p>
<p>The one downside I have to say about the campus is that if you don’t have a car, it’s going to be difficult getting off campus. Going to a restaurant in downtown la jolla takes around 20 minutes by bus but it takes less than 10 by car. And don’t even get me started about downtown San Diego by bus. But there’s so much to do in downtown SD and SO much good food. And you can’t forget about PB either! So my advice is to either get a car or become friends with someone who does have a car haha</p>
<p>I’m sure wherever you decide to go you’ll have a great time, but I’m just saying, you can’t go wrong with SD! :)</p>
<p>@$KingsElite$</p>
<p>Thanks, I couldn’t find it online.</p>
<p>@christee8876</p>
<p>Thank you for the informative post.</p>
<p>Off-topic:
I am admitted as CompE student at UCSD. Now I think I am leaning more towards CompSci. So, is it possible to switch my major? If yes, how hard will it be, what should I do and how soon?
It may be useful: CompE and CompSci are in the same department “Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)”</p>