<p>Need some serious help here - </p>
<p>MY D has acceptances from UCSD (Revelle - Econ), USD (20k/y), SLO, Chapman ($25K/yr), Pepperdine (no aid yet ?), Santa Clara (BTW - if there is another thread or forum to post the discussion of how to make the decision between the schools above - please lmk)</p>
<p>Any idea/pointers as to how to help her make a decision - we are planning to visit to check out the atmosphere</p>
<p>Key questions are</p>
<ol>
<li>Brand recognition for the above schools esp USD/UCSD/SLO/Chapman as it pertains to business ?</li>
<li>How well is Chapman known for their business program ?</li>
<li>My D likes a small school atmosphere - and she is thinking she may get the advantages of a big school (brand, exposure etc) with a small school feel with the Revelle college atmosphere at UCSD - is that true ?</li>
<li>She is inclined to go for an MBA later on - which school is better or worse for the same</li>
<li>It seems like all schools have a good international/study abroad program - any thoughts there ?</li>
<li>Is $20K/year the max for non need based at USD ?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thoughts ?</p>
<p>UCSD has a strong economics program, but it is pretty mathematical. How’s your daughter inclined? Revelle also has a stringent core, which means (unless she’s bringing in AP credits in some areas) that she’ll a strong science and math sequence to deal with. (She’ll need the math – and more – for econ anyway, but she might not be so keen on Physics or Chemistry or Biology.) It is a smaller school environment on a bigger campus, which has some real benefits. </p>
<p>Personally, I think Revelle’s location can’t be beat, and UCSD scores very highly on the reputation front. </p>
<p>If she wants eventually to go for an MBA – especially at one of the stronger schools – I’d really suggest that she NOT major in business as an undergrad. The stronger B schools still seem to like students who bring something else to the table – they do admit students with undergrad B degrees, but not in proportion to the number they admit from other undergrad degree areas.</p>
<p>Well - she has done AP Calc, AP Stats, AP Econ, AP Bio, Honors Physics - so I think that should be fine -</p>
<ol>
<li>Any opinions regarding USD vs UCSD vs SLO?</li>
<li>Also does UCSD have a business degree of sorts or is it just Econ ?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks </p>
<p>Virendra</p>
<p>At UCSD the key difference between the 6 ‘colleges’ within it is the specific GE requirements each one has. Some have pretty specific requirements and some are more flexible. If the specific requirements are courses your D would probably like to take anyway then it she’ll like that particular college. Some of the students in majors that have a requirement to take a lot of specific course, like engineering, tend to prefer the ‘colleges’ that have fewer specific GE requirements, like Warren or Muir. Have her check the GE requirements for Revelle and make sure she’s fine with it. It takes about 3 minutes or so to walk between Revelle and Muir, for example, so that’s not a big deal when she makes friends who are at the different colleges. When my kid (Muir) moved off campus into an apt it was with a kid who was at Revelle.</p>
<p>Regardless of the particular ‘college’, they’ll actually take their courses across the campus and together with people from other colleges. They’ll dorm with other students from their college since the res halls are specfic to the college. They can dine at any of the dining halls - they’re not stuck with just their own. After the first couple of years, when students tend to move off campus into apartments and when they’re in upper division classes, the ‘college’ system becomes less relevant and they’ll be more focused on their particular major.</p>
<p>Rankings wise, I think UCSD ranks higher than the others generally and of course, UCSD is bigger and therefore offers a lot of opportunity for switching majors, taking other courses, taking courses with a different prof and time slot, etc. However, some people prefer a smaller college. It just depends on the individual.</p>
<p>Be sure to double check this but I don’t think UCSD has a specific undergrad business program which is consistent with a number of other colleges, UCLA among them. People would typically take econ or some other degree and then for the business aspect tend to go to grad school and get an MBA. The value of an undergrad business degree is debatable when it comes to getting a job.</p>
<p>There will be different feels between USD, UCSD, and SLO due to the relative sizes of the colleges as well as the locatoins to some extent - especially SLO. If she hasn’t already done so, she should definitely visit all of these schools and see what kind of feel she gets from them.</p>