Hello there, I am a senior who is currently deciding between three schools right now. I was admitted into UW Seattle, UCSB, and Pitt (all under econ major, I still don’t know if I’ll go for the BA or BS side of economics but probably BS to get a job in the banking sector.) and would love some insight.
Pros for UW
-the location. location is an important factor to me and I really enjoy how UW is located about 10 minutes from downtown Seattle which is a bustling place for job opportunities. I also enjoy their campus…hands down one of the best campuses out there.
-internship opportunities. being near Seattle there should be good internship opportunities for me to obtain while studying.
-The professors seem like they know what they are doing, or so what I have read from other posts on other sites. Like always there will be some professors that I would want to have and some that I would want to stay away from.
-The open-minded community on campus and in the city. Seattle and UW are very open-minded places and seem to have people who are very entrepreneurial-focused, which is a great thing.
-social life is also pretty good here. you have D1 athletics such as football which always makes for a good time. It’s that balance of work hard play hard, even though UW puts a little more focus on the work hard.
Cons for UW
- from what I have read, I have to take my pre-req classes and then apply again to the major that I want to be in, which is not ideal especially since I have heard that some people with stellar grades and resumes got rejected when they applied to their major.
-the weather. yes, the weather. I heard that it rains over there (people tend to exaggerate), and although I don’t mind the rain there are apparently depressing months when it just rains and no one goes out. - The area around the campus. Don’t get me wrong I love the campus, but when I visited, University Ave/the college town area is kinda sketchy. It just doesn’t seem like a great place to be out at night, but I would just have to keep my eyes open around me.
-The econ department is ranked alright I think. I know rankings shouldn’t matter even though I’m bringing it up, but yeah it’s not ranked too high but not ranked too low. UW seems more focused on stem side of things.
Pros for UCSB
-the campus, like UW is beautiful (even though they’re two different geographical areas). you have the beach and Isla Vista next to you which is nice.
-academics. the econ department at ucsb is very well regarded and the University as a whole is well respected (a pro for all three of these universities to be honest). Very good professors who are focused on doing research as well (will get to this in a short minute).
-Social life is great, even better than UW. since you have the beach next to you, its a balance of work hard play hard, but leaning to that play harder too (which can be a bad thing too if one were to get caught up in it).
-once again networking to internships/jobs is great especially since it has the title of being a UC school.
Cons of UCSB
-seems like they focus on stem more than most majors (or maybe it’s just me that’s thinking this)
-I heard that housing is expensive, like stupid expensive (will get to this in a minute too).
-although it has a college town, it feels far from a big city. Like mentioned earlier, I would love to have a campus and college town, but would also like to have a city nearby to do things on the weekends. In other words, have a campus AND college town to hang out with friends, but also have a medium-big city nearby to do things. Santa Barbara is more of a small city, almost like a town, and is around 20 minutes to downtown Santa Barbara (State Street).
-not much school athletics. no football team, but they do have soccer which is pretty cool I guess…not as fun as a football game.
Pros for Pitt
-cost. it is in-state for me and would be the cheapest.
-it’s like UW. has that college campus and college town, while also being close, 10 minutes, to a medium (depending on how you classify Pittsburgh) city, which will allow for internships.
-a lot of food places near pitt, especially downtown.
-good social life as well. It has athletics, not only at the collegiate level but professional level as well.
-the economics program is strong here as well, and the school is well respected as well.
Cons for Pitt
-it is still in PA. I would like to move away from PA, but that in-state tuition is nice.
- Oakland (the area in which Pitt is in) seems to also be kind of sketchy as well. once again though, I would just have to be aware and not be stupid.
- I think pitt, like ucsb and uw is also focused on the stem side of things, so eh I guess.
Overall.
All these choices are great choices for what I would like to study and I am very glad and fortunate that I am able to select from these great universities. These pros and cons are just ones that I have found after reading other threads and doing research and visiting.
I know I mentioned that all these schools are more stem focused as a con, and I realize when I say that, that all these schools are public research institutions and that is their main goal: research.
Class sizes will not be a problem since I know that at every university the classes start out big but get smaller as you focus more on your major.
Cost/Tuition will not be too much of a factor. Obviously, I wouldn’t want to be stupid and spend $367378637897883, but my parents are in a financial situation in which we can afford these universities, be it in-state or out-of-state. I would just like a university that will give me a good return on investment. In other words, be able to secure me a good job that will allow me to have a good salary.
If there is anything else that you would like to add, please feel free. Just don’t roast me too much.
Thank you!