<p>Hello ccers, I'm in need of some major advice over here. I got accepted to these colleges for a chemE major, but I'm having real trouble deciding which is the one for me, as each one focuses more on one part of engineering.
As you guys know, affordability, location, major, academia and other factors are heavily important. I'm okay with the price for the UCs, but USC... well, we all know how expensive that is. Since some loans will be needed for USC, I really don't want to put my parents into debt, which is why I'm currently rushing to complete many scholarships ASAP. Being rejected for scholarship consideration, I'm looking at around $40k so far. Along with that, I'm still waiting for their estimate, whereas I've already have the financial aid estimates for the UCs. So, overall, for money, UCs look okay, but USC I'm really hesitant on.
For academia, USC, UCSD, and UCD are on my radar, especially USC & UCSD. UCI... not really. It's hard to tell which has overall an astounding engineering program, with ChemE as my major.
As for location, I'm really tolerable with all of the universities. However, I have heard that USC's neighborhood is somewhat unsafe around the nights. Also, I have visited both UCD and UCSD and I was highly impressed by UCSD's atmosphere, considering that people here said that UCSD doesn't have much of school pride. In addition, the architecture at UCSD looked unique to me, and the campus seemed like a good area to have a bike around to use as transportation. UCD seemed vast to me; all that farmland, but a good university nonetheless. As for USC, I haven't been there before, but both USC and UCSD aren't that far from my home. I'll be visiting USC in a few days. but so far, I'm leaning towards UCSD. And considering La Jolla, the neighborhood seems ok to me, although it looks expensive.
Overall, UCI, UCSD, and USC are close to me, while UCD is in North Cal, so I'm tolerant for just all of them, I guess.
So, considering these major factors and other minor factors for these four colleges, what do you guys suggest?</p>
<p>Umm, anyone wanna chime in with advice, or suggestions?</p>
<p>UCSD is highly respected, you can’t really go wrong with either. USC could be fun if you’re into sports. What do your parents say?</p>
<p>Based on finances USC is out. La Jolla IS expensive, but if the cost difference is not much between UCSD and UCD (UCI is out in my book) I would opt for UCSD. If not UCD is a great alternative.</p>
<p>To both wanko99 and SMCguy, I know that both USC and UCSD are expensive, with USC being the greater. However, for sports, I do enjoy basketball, soccer, swimming, golf, and tennis. However, by seeing only the financial awards from the UCs, they look about the same, with UCSD being a bit more expensive. Also, without receiving USC’s own, I’m really anxious as to whether to opt out USC and go for UCSD. For me, I have only one question in my mind: With 12 days left, shall I choose UCSD or UCD as my university, or shall I wait a few more days for USC’s package to come?</p>
<p>P.S. I mean, USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering looks profound and focused on engineering. Another question is this: Considering USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering to UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering (established in 2010), which seems to be overall more focused on engineering (particularly chemE)?</p>