Hi! I got accepted to UCSD and UCSB and I basically have a week left to decide and I still don’t know where to go. I live in San Diego and my major for both is Chemistry. UCSB’s estimated yearly cost for me is $6k while UCSD’s is $10k. If I go to UCSD I will for sure dorm my first year and maybe live at home until I get my degree (16 mi drive from home)(45 mins drive during SD traffic) my really close friend is planning to dorm with me if I go to UCSD and for UCSB, I don’t know anyone… Where should I go?
This is a decision you have to make because you have all of the info regarding this choice. Imo, the schools are similar enough in quality that this is not an issue. Things more like familiarity vs new environment feature in this situation. Distance from family, fewer familiar faces, will all be in the picture.
My one son reveled in that prospect. He went to an OOS public university where not a single person from his high school was present. Being a major state U, most of the kids there knew a lot of their classmates. He was the new kid on the block. He enjoyed the fact that college was such a new, different experience as did a number of kids I knew. But the vast majority of students I know tend to go to familiar schools, all other things equal.
That, to me, is the biggest issue to you. That is, if cost is not. With the option to commute and the distance from home, the cost differential might even disappear.