Thanks in advance for advice. My daughter is picking between the Univ of Utah Honors program and UCLA. She doesn’t know what area she wants to study yet. We can (marginally) afford the difference in cost, but we are not CA residents.
The University of Utah doesn’t get talked about much here (there’s not even a thread about it - hint mods!). D18 has just committed to the U over Berkeley and UCLA, and we are CA residents. She did that because she is going to do a ballet BFA, and honestly it wouldn’t have been on our radar otherwise. But we were very impressed with the facilities, location and school spirit. And there will be smart students there in Honors, though my impression is that getting a 4.0 GPA isn’t too hard (the scholarships require a minimum GPA of 3.6 which is said to be easy enough).
I think it’s a tough decision, to me it would depend on where your daughter wants to be long term (being in Salt Lake is good for a dancer, but for say a CS student, California might be a better option, and certainly UCLA would have a much bigger reputation nationally to help in a job hunt).
I’ll put in a plug for UCLA.
Sure it’s a large public with little in the way of personal attention and advising. But starting her junior year she can schedule an appt to talk to an advisor instead of an undergrad peer counselor or grad student doing work/study as an advisor (see https://cac.ucla.edu/about-cac/meet-the-cac-staff/). And yes, classes may have hundreds of students (esp. lower division breadth classes) and still be around 100 students upper-division for popular majors. Most kids make it out of the pre-major screening and get into the major they want, as long as they aren’t trying to switch into engineering or something.
Never mind any of that. As a CA resident I am pleased as punch when an OOS student enrolls and contributes $120K over 4 years in OOS fees to the UC system! I hope we can welcome your D to the Bruin family.
You can pay the full $60,000 a year plus to attend UCLA? If so…fine.
Both schools have their advantages.
If there are loans to take for UCLA, and grad or professional school is in the future…please think about the costs.