<p>I don’t know abut Cornell. All I know is if I bothered to go all the way to Oxford to get a classic British educational experience, and most of the people I got to know were from New Jersey and Texas, I’d wonder why I bothered.</p>
<p>Given your revealed preferences, I would say UCLA or USC. UCLA will be stronger in EE, but not by a lot. Grading will not be as brutal at USC, being private.</p>
<p>USC will be stronger in offering the “traditional college experience” in that the football stadium is a short walk from campus. USC is <em>very</em> large for a private University, and as such has some very large classes as UCLA does. </p>
<p>However, the neighborhood around USC is not so nice. The neighborhood around UCLA contains the Playboy Mansion. UCLA will be more recognizable in Asia, if you plan to return to Asia to work, but USC has gained a lot of ground in the past 10-15 years, so the advantage to UCLA is modest.</p>
<p>excellent point mom2. Even some top LACs have a few intro courses over 100 students.</p>
<p>UCLA. </p>
<p>Enjoy it!</p>
<p>I’d choose between UCLA, USC, and UVA</p>
<p>Go to wherever is the cheapest</p>
<p>… I’m not trying to pick on your posts, necessarily.</p>
<p>But your last two quotes:</p>
<p>Quote 1:</p>
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</p>
<p>Melded with Quote 2:</p>
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<p>… If I get your meaning, would imply that UCLA isn’t the classic California experience. This is wrong, the u is indeed quintessentially CA. Most first generation from other countries are Californian in style and lifestyle. Absolutely, CA is multicultural, so this encompasses much.</p>
<p>Here’s a video of students volunteering. Almost all are in [shorts, tees, etc,](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtnfHVOPU-8”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtnfHVOPU-8</a>) and have at least decent tans. In fact, Asians tend to tan better than Whites, as do Blacks (who obviously have nicer tans) and Hispanics. If you want to speak openly about race, then state what’s going on in your head instead of dancing lightly around the subject.</p>
<p>If the idea of the OP is to meet hot people of all races and to experience CA, then UCLA is certainly a great choice.</p>
<p>And I thought your school was Cornell, just by reading your past posts.</p>
<p>
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<p>In comparing engineering classes at UCLA and USC, one student said UCLA"s were ‘shockingly harder.’</p>
<p>drax, how did that “one student” learn that?</p>
<p>… took classes at UCLA while enrolled at USC. Was rejected at UCLA.</p>
<p>Too abreviated a message… Per SWHarbor, a neighbor’s son…</p>
<p>drax, I never said UCLA wouldn’t be a classic California experience, I said it had 2 (relevant, according to the OP’s preferences) attributes that were not typical of the classic AMERICAN experience. </p>
<p>The OP indicated that he wanted a classic American college experience, which I would imagine includes the stereotypical “football weekends.” I don’t think the typical American college football weekend includes hour-long bus rides across town to/from your own home stadium…certainly not a deal breaker, but definitely something that is not the norm and is seen by some as detrimental to frivolity (in fact the U of Minnesota blamed its students’ lack of enthusiasm re football in the past few decades on the fact that they didn’t have an on-campus stadium).</p>
<p>And the other thing that I said made UCLA other than a typical college experience was its high % of Asians. This is relevant because he said he wanted something different from at home in Taiwan. I don’t know exactly how he meant that, but I’ve been to the UCLA campus, and I just thought he should know that there are more than a few people there who might remind him of home. We’re getting close to setting off the Politically Incorrect alarms here, and I don’t need any more demerits. So I’ll leave it there.</p>
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<p>LOL…</p>
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<p>I’d generally agree. But then it’d be a way to get off campus with free transportation to Pasadena, see a game, and see Old Town and various parts of eastern LA metro, a different world than Westwood. </p>
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<p>All I was trying to say were the following, a bit by implication:</p>
<p>1) The only one on the list that wouldn’t have significant Asians in engineering would probably be UVa.</p>
<p>2) The Asians at UCLA typically don’t remind Asians of Asians from Asian countries. Neither do White Canadians, say, from BC, typically remind Whites of White Californians.</p>
<p>Dance around this, if you need to respond. ; )</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the replies, and suggestions. I see that most of the discussions are about UCLA vs USC, but may I just ask, apart from the cold in UIUC (and also its apparent lack of reputation in Asia, which I totally agree), what other disadvantages/ advantages are there for going to UIUC? (I don’t really see it discussed)</p>
<p>And could more points on the pros and cons of each engineering school be discussed? Like why one is better than the other? (apart from statistics like UIUC has more Nobel laureates)</p>
<p>Also, I think I’ve come to a conclusion (that I should have already have come to a long time ago) that almost all good engineering schools are peppered with Asians, and it is impossible to want to be in a good engineering school and yet not meet Asians. Guess it’s also the same about large lectures. (which should be fine for me since I had them in high school too)</p>
<p>Anyway, just some more information on my background. I am from Taiwan, but I studied in Singapore since like primary school. (I know it’s still an Asian country full of Chinese)</p>
<p>If you post your questions about UIUC at the UIUC sub-forum, you will probably find out more information specific to that university: [University</a> of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-illinois-urbana-champaign/]University”>University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign - College Confidential Forums) </p>
<p>I happen to think that it is a great place, but then I am from Iowa where the weather is just as bad, and where there are (possibly) even more farms that produce corn, soybeans, and hogs. People from other parts of the country often have issues with Midwestern weather, and urban people can freak out when they have that much wide open space around them. However, Midwesterners would tell you that opting to study at UIUC would give you a chance to see the “real” US.</p>
<p>TBH, I think you’re crazy for going to UIUC over UCLA, USC, or UVa but that’s just me. </p>
<p>The reason people aren’t debating UVa, however, is, as rjkofnovi has mentioned, their engineering department is rather patchy so this has kind of naturally degenerated into the USC vs UCLA debate ( which is not necessarily off topic, mind you, because these are the top two candidates in many posters’ minds).</p>
<p>“The Asians at UCLA typically don’t remind Asians of Asians from Asian countries.”</p>
<p>I have this to say about that:</p>
<p>(1) I think there is a collegeconfidential rule that you can only use the word “Asian” a maximum 3 times in a sentence without a semi-colon. </p>
<p>(2) How do you know that?</p>
<p>It’s not, however, like you’re going to get a degree in engineering from UVa and not know anything about engineering. It might not be AS good as the others, but it’s not like they’re sitting around the engineering school trying to figure out how to put their socks on.</p>
<p><a href=“2”>quote</a> How do you know that?
[/quote]
It’s a matter of opinion but drax12 is a UCLA alumni. As a current Asian UCLA student myself, I would have to agree with him. </p>
<p>Asian Americans look nothing alike Asia Asians. Aside from different facial structures, American Asians are typically bulkier/stockier (though still not necessarily fat) and often a lot darker as well. The culture is also quite different. Asians from Asian nations are very introvert, as if American Asians weren’t introvert enough already.</p>
<p>An overwhelming number of UCLA students are in-state Californians so these are mostly American Asians you are dealing with or at least first generation Asians that have been in California for a while.</p>
<p>but won’t the bad weather in UIUC make people study more? haha, and that’ll not be the “real” US, right? And I think there’s a slight contradiction between wanting a good engineering school and wanting to have a American experience, right?</p>
<p>Who can quantify a “real American experience”? </p>
<p>The United States is a large place. You can go to the University of Colorado, which is located in a modest city, and that would still be “American”. There’s snow at NYU and what can be more American than that? </p>
<p>UIUC is an American experience but it probably isn’t the one a lot of internationals are looking for.</p>