I’m currently deciding between USC, UCLA, and UPenn. Cost is roughly the same for each school (less than $20k). I’m from the east coast, and want to experience better weather, so USC and UCLA have the edge there. I’m pretty undecided on a major, but thinking about cognitive science and a creative writing minor. Prestige is important to me, but from what I’ve gathered, the three schools are pretty much in the same tier? I’m visiting Penn tomorrow and won’t have a chance to visit USC or UCLA until after May 1st, the deadline for committing to a college. So, what kind of personality is most prevalent at each school? What’s the atmosphere like? Any insight/advice on this would be much appreciated!
I can assure you that Penn has a much higher prestige factor on the East Coast that the two SoCal schools, so if you plan on returning East to work…
other than that, I’m not a big fan of paying OOS tuition for non-specific program. Just out of curiosity. how is UCLA so cheap (“less than $20k”) when the non-waivable OOS fees alone are ~$29k?
Upenn has a pretty interesting cog sci program. not sure about ucla/sc. Upenn is a lot more prestigious than ucla/sc, in my humble opinion and college rankings.
Are you an international student?
Really hard to pick a school when you’ve never set foot on campus.
UPenn is definitely in a higher tier than USC or UCLA.
^^ Absolutely concur, must have been a foregone conclusion OP would pick Penn; maybe he or she just wanted to just throw it out here one last time. Would love weather, but not nearly enough to override Penn and undoubtedly has known this for awhile. Edit: Int’l attending school on east coast? Does’t really matter.
@bluebayou I actually haven’t submitted the required forms to get financial aid from UCLA yet, but USC and Penn are both <20k so I assumed UCLA would give a similar amount of money–also I didn’t want price to be a point of debate, at least not right now
@STF4717 No, i’m from the states. and I know 
@firmament2x yeah, i’m pretty set on Penn, but I guess I just wanted to clear up any doubt in my mind?
so I assumed UCLA would give a similar amount of money-<<<<<<<<<<<
Hmmm.
Anyone applying from out of state for UC’s won’t get as much money or any money at all.
in most circles, Penn, as an Ivy League college, definitely is more prestigious academically than UCLA or USC, even in the West Coast. UCLA and USC has much more school spirit than Penn in terms of sports since both UCLA and USC participate in the PAC 12 sports conference, a division I conference. UCLA or USC each has a much larger student enrollment than Penn.
Re, post #7…
Someone, somewhere was stating that Cal will offer a few non-residents Regents Scholarships to bring down the cost to resident fees. Is this true, @ucbalumnus ?
yes, OOS students are eligible for Regents. And yes, if someone has financial need, it can cover the OOS fees.
Actually, people, UCLA and UPenn have similarly ranked cognitive science programs. The “Ivy League” tag does not mean that a college is automatically “better”, or even ranked higher than non Ivies, especially in STEM fields. Cognitive science is one of those STEM fields. In Cognitive psychology, UCLA is ranked higher.
Both UPenn and UCLA are better than USC in this field.
So, if you like UPenn after you visit, go to UPenn. As I wrote, they are similarly ranked, choose based on personal preference.
PS. Of course in engineering, almost no Ivy even breaks the top 20.
UCLA and USC are very prestigious in Southern California, and a lot of people there won’t even know Penn is Ivy League. They’ll think you went to Penn State.
Once you start getting outside of California, their academic prestige level drops. Most people will think of basketball when they hear “UCLA”, and most will think of football when they hear “USC”.
@simba9 I think that, for the next couple of years, most people will not be thinking “football” when they hear “USC”…
However, if the OP got a Regents scholarship from UCLA, s/he would know by now…
Go to UPenn. If you want to switch major later it will be difficult to do so at UCLA.
My daughter applied for cognitive science and she switched to engineering during the second semester of her sophomore year without problem at UPenn. There are more research opportunities at UPenn.
How do you pass up Penn in this scenario?
I agree. Screw the weather. I’d go to Penn.
Depends on who is doing the counting. USNews has UCLA in its top 10 (plus ties), but that doesn’t mean that Penn is not the next in line, i.e., relative equivalent of #11.
Sure, UCLA is strong in Psych, but so is Penn, as this link shows. In fact, it has Penn ranked slightly higher than UCLA for CogSci.
https://www.socialpsychology.org/ggradoth.htm
Umm, Columbia, Cornell, P’ton do ok. Penn engineering is no slouch either. (As an aside, both H & Y are pumping a lot of money into Engineering; give them a few years to start climbing the ladder.)
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings
OP: how did your visit go? Besides weather and D1 sports, I could not think of one reason why UCLA would be a better choice than Penn. (Well, there is always the ‘going across country to college learning process’.)
The dissection of relative prestige is silly. It’s nearly meaningless when all of the schools are prestigious.
And when it’s 20 degrees out for two straight months there is an advantage to being able to get outside.
But it’s just one data point.
I like the smaller community at penn. and you’ll be surrounded by uniformly serious students. Some would prefer that some vibe, some like diversity in all things.
It’s not a great location at all. Unless it’s changed a lot in the past 10 years.
I don’t know enough about usc and UCLA overall. But UCLA appears to be powerhouse in your major and Penn right behind them. Tough choice.
Choose based on which seems to be the best environment for you be happy and excited for school.
But don’t go somewhere because you think you are “supposed to” or others make you feel that way. It’s just personal preference one person has on the subject. Which is fine but doesn’t mean it’s true. It’s true to them.
I would narrow my choice to Penn and UCLA.