Thanks @eyemgh - the UCSD recommends several hotels on the website and you get a discount if you have a tour with the school. I have not been able to check the prices of the hotels,though.
Also, I think we definitely want to try the Sunset Tour as well at UCSD - a scenic tour overlooking the beaches as the sun sets.
grr - the UCSD website, not the UCSD.
As a further suggestion, we Ubered all over LA during our visits, which might be a good alternative for the LA visits.
since we’re talking alternate forms of transportation in LA, the Metro Expo line does go from Santa Monica to USC. Takes 45 minutes. Eventually, the Metro Purple line will go from downtown to UCLA, but that’s another 7 years away. 45 minutes sounds long, but it can easily take an hour to get from Santa Monica to USC by car, depending on time of day.
@NewJeffCT I know the UCSD gave you some hotel tips, not sure if this one is on it, but stayed at The Hotel La Jolla, part of Hilton’s Curio collection and really liked it. They have bikes you can borrow for free plus beach towels and chairs. The beach was about a 10 minute walk.
Thanks @ProfessorPlum168 Metro Expo is a train service, right? Looking at the map, Santa Monica is closer to UCLA than USC, so we could drive to UCLA one day and take Metro Expo the next to USC.
@NewJeffCT that would be a decent plan IMO. At least you know you won’t have to fight traffic and wonder about the parking going to USC and you would be staying in a nice (but a bit too-touristy IMO) area in Santa Monica. Plus this will give your daughter some exposure to what public transportation would be like in LA. Something more or less unheard of as little as 10 years ago but they’ve done a decent job of adding lots of rail lines.
If you take the Metro in the LA area, like any large cities, just be aware and vigilant of your surroundings.
If you want to stay on campus at UCLA I’d consider the Luskin Center. It’s a brand new hotel on the UCLA campus and is really nice inside. UCLA offers campus tours around 11,1, and 3ish. And if you don’t register you can hop on without a problem. UCLA doesn’t track demonstrated interest anyways. I would also request a housing tour by emailing the res life office. The dorms are great and everyone lives in one area so it’s super sociable. If you want to try the dining (rated #1 two years in a row by Niche) a dining pass for lunch is 11 and dinner is 12. Or stand in front of a hall and ask a student to swipe you in the going rate for swipes is about $7. Bring cash or Venmo if doing that way. If you do a campus tour and housing tour and lunch expect to spend 4-6 hours at UCLA. Similar timing for usc which is also a nice campus although the surrounding neighborhood is tougher than I imagined. I feel totally fine and see a lot of students walking around Westwood at 1-2:30 in the morning.
UCLA also has separate school tours in addition to their general university tours. For example, Engineering has their own tours. There is some overlap with the regular tour, but the Engineering tour does take you to some of the Engineering buildings and to the outside of some of the classrooms while they are in session. I will also admit that UCLA’s dining hall beats Berkeley handily for food options and taste, and ranks in my top 2 college dining experiences along with UMass.
USC is relatively speaking is not that great of an area, but it’s all a matter of what you are used to. It’s not any different than say Yale or U of Chicago, beautiful on the inside, just don’t let your guard down at night.
I disagree with the comment that if you don’t register in advance, you can hop on a tour for UCLA. My daughter did not have that experience when she went with a friend and tried to get on a tour. They were all booked and she was told there was no room for more people. They walked around on their own and did see some tours and tried to hear what was being said but they were big and it was a bit difficult.
@CAtransplant If you go to the info booth right before the presentation the Bruin Ambassadors will ask to check you in if you didn’t sign up they’ll say it’s full (cause it mostly likely is). After the presentation everyone goes out to any tour guide standing out in Bruin plaza. That’s when you “hop” on. The guides themselves don’t check. Just walk over and you’re in it. You just miss the admission presentation but all that info can be found at the website. Hope that helps.
Source(Current tour guides and I’m one of the engineering ambasadors)
One important thing to remember about all of the UC’s, is that they do not guarantee housing after the first year.
That means that your student will not only be responsible for locating and affording off-campus accommodations, in some areas local housing is so impacted that many students will need to live well outside of what we might consider easy commute distance of their schools. Coupled with area traffic, a student might get more than they bargain for with the California experience. Be sure that you ask the hard housing questions during your tours.
I also agree with those smart posters above who are encouraging visits to some non-UC schools, specifically LMU, USD and the Claremont consortium schools.
In Northern California, Santa Clara and U San Francisco seem as if they might fit the bill.
UC housing guarantee varies by campus.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/housing-2018.pdf
@hop. I know UCLA guarantees housing for three years.
Open House Days for SoCal UCs:
UCLA, UCSB - April 13
UCI - April 20
UCSD - TBD
the open houses are generally meant for admitted 12th graders, but anyone can come.
@CAtransplant - we will 100% be making reservations for a tour. We’re coming from across the country and don’t want to take chances of a tour being full.
@ProfessorPlum168 we’re likely going to be going in March before the UC schools have Spring Break
@Jugulator20 wow - no guarantee at all of housing at Berkeley?
@NewJeffCT haha yeah you could always fly in for the weekend. You’ll literally have access to all the buildings, dorms, many faculty members, etc. This spring at the UC-Berkeley Cal Bear Day Open House, I was amazed at the sheer number of OOS people there. I’ll assume that most of them were actually family of admitted or current students though.