<p>If I were you I’d heavily look into the course requirements and the schedule of classes to get a sense of what curriculum you’re going to be more interested in and what’s going to be the most useful to you in the future. I wouldn’t get too caught up on how long it’s going to take you to get your degree, as long as it’s not excessive.</p>
<p>I think what’s more important is that you choose the curriculum that’s going to serve you best in terms of what you want to do post graduation and what you feel interested in the most, which should also give you the best chance at maintaining your GPA. Also, I’m not sure where you’re located, but if you happen to be in Orange County / San Diego County, I’d try to sit through classes to get a sense of what the environment is like at them. UCSD has a list of classes that are open to the public to sit through and many of the other UC’s do as well. UCLA does, I’m not sure about UCI. Here’s the list for UCSD:
<a href=“http://admissions.ucsd.edu/_files/lectures-offered.pdf[/url]”>http://admissions.ucsd.edu/_files/lectures-offered.pdf</a></p>
<p>If you can maybe sit through 4-5 classes to get a sense of what it’s like to be a student there, your decision should become a lot easier. Don’t be afraid to look through the schedule of classes for other classes you find interesting that aren’t listed. Just make sure the enrollment is fairly large if you’re going to sit through because even if it’s not a preapproved class, if it’s in a big lecture hall no one’s going to really notice or care that you’re not technically a student.</p>
<p><strong>Warning. Preachy, possibly egoistical, but also insightful rant below</strong>
Lastly, I would say if you can, ignore the rankings. Both schools in terms of department and overall prestige seem to be pretty close to one another. Don’t let that make the final decision for you. You’re much more likely to regret your decision if you blindly make it by looking at the rankings. Rather than if you were to sit through the classes and find the environment that’s right for you. I think people put way too much emphasis in the rankings when in actuality there’s much less that separates the UCs than people like to imagine. That’s not to say they’re all the same because they’re not. But what’s more important is to find the place you’re going to succeed and thrive at not where you think has the best brand name after graduation. Your future career prospects are going to be affected by what you’ve actually done in college much more than where you actually went, especially amongst as highly regarded institutions as the UCs. </p>
<p>I’ll end with this, when I was picking between UCSD and UCLA as a Biology major, I was able to ask the associate dean of biology here at UCSD, “what makes UCSD better than a UCLA or Berkeley or UCI?” And she basically told me they were all great institutions and that they weren’t really all that different. She didn’t vouch for UCSD, aside from mentioning the med school on campus, but pretty much said they were all great choices. Here’s the kicker though, I did the same with the head of my major at UCLA and she basically told me the same thing. If the administrators that are really high up at these institutions can’t tell you how much any one of them are significantly better and more highly ranked over the other then what does that tell us? Granted that was for Biology, but you kind of get the point. People really need to put less emphasis in the rankings. And if you’re going to look at the rankings, look at ALL the rankings not just US News lol. </p>
<p>Sorry for the very lengthy rant. I got carried away, but hopefully that’s helpful to a few of you that were on the fence about picking a UC like I was when I applied.</p>