Which University of California is Best?

[xyyz]

<< riverside is nice. they also have really decent meal plans and great ways of getting reduced plans if you work on campus. (i wish ucla had that... my housing is freaking expensive)

their newest dorms are really nice, and its a lot more easy going over there.

perhaps the only drawback is that it gets hot there. >>



man I HATED UCR.... yuck... it's hot and smoggy... and ugly... i'll give it one thing... it really has that small school type of feeling... to where the Chancelor readily interacts with students (he teaches Physics) ..Chancelor Orbach is awesome... I actually did some work in his lab physical lab

who's sister did the biomed program? when did she graduate? I knew LOTS of people who made the final cut and are all doing their residency now...

 

[xyyz]

<< I go to UCI. Our most apparent qualities are jaded kids, ricers, and a really good liberal arts program.

In all seriousness, we do have one of the best graduate writing programs in the country. >>



Not to mention TWO nobel laurates within ONE year.... now if that's not kick ass for you... I dunno what is...

 

[Rickten]

cal poly san luis obispo is architecture school. The BEST architects go there.

edit: is it safe to say that if you goto UC anything your at a decent college. I mean there are DEFINETLY worse places to go. Can I also say that you have a good chance of finding a job.

 

[GoldenBear]

<< That's why it has no medical school right... hell it doesn't even hav ea dental school.... what you guys got a thing against health medicine? >>

There's a fine one about 10 minutes from it, for those that fancy such a plan.

 

[JeremyJoe]

all depends on your major....im about to go to UCD which is good cause there is not much distractions besides tipping over the cows, but my first choice was UCB then UCLA. UCB is ranked veryly highly even more than Stanford. I think there was a post a couple weeks ago that rated all the schools might wanna do a search for it. Keep in mind that the Popular UC schools like berk and LA are very very hard to get into. You have to be over 4.0 gpa, 1400 SAT wouldnt hurt, Sports and Clubs are a Must, Essay is very important, and extra activities and community service are a good addition. Cal Poly SLO is a good Engineering but also its a Cal State School but very well known. BTW Cal Poly Pomona I heard isnt so great.

 

[hans007]

i really think junior college professors care more. my aunt and uncle care much more about their students and they are jr college profs. another family friend teaches at csulb, and well i think ucla profs, especially in engineering could give a rats ass if you even knew their names. not to mention being engineers i think they have to be some of the most boring people to listen to let alone talk to. i've heard from a guy that goes to a trade school that if you actuallly wanna get hands on learning, that those people who go to devry or itt tech actually get to design circuits with real PCBS , unlike at ucla where we barely even get to use a simulator. well thats an EE example i guess.

 

[swai]

<< Keep in mind that the Popular UC schools like berk and LA are very very hard to get into. You have to be over 4.0 gpa, 1400 SAT wouldnt hurt, Sports and Clubs are a Must, Essay is very important, and extra activities and community service are a good addition >>


i would say that for berkeley (engineering at least), extracurricular stuff isn't that important
they use the 8000 point system, which is:
GPA * 1000 (4000 pts) + SAT I (1600 pts) + 3 SAT IIs (2400 pts)... for a total of 8000 pts

for their first round, they select half of the total admittances
this is based only on this 8000 pt system, where you have to be above a certain cutoff, depending on the major (the highest cutoff is EECS, at 7600)
so basically if you had 7800, you'd automatically be admitted to your major of choice

i'm guessing the second half of admittances are chosen in a more traditional manner where they look at your extracurricular stuff, awards, essay, etc.

 

[CarpeDeo]

swai is right . . . except you can't know for sure if the eecs cut off is 7600. It changes yearly . . . last I remember it, UCLA was 6900 and Berkeley was 7100 (not engineering).

This is actually called the tier system. Tier I is the point system . . . if you don't get in via the point system, then you're deferred to Tier II, where they look at your activities and essay.

Tier I: GPA x 1000 + 25 pts for every Honors/AP class you've taken. Note: this caps at 4000 (most everyone who applies to Berkeley or LA I'm sure gets all 4000 points). Most students will end up taking about 8-10 honors/AP classes in their sophomore and junior year . . . so that's another 200-250 points on top of your soph/jun year GPA.

Tier II: Same as swai stated. SAT II's are VERY important . . . point for point- they're equivalent to SAT I's . . .but they have 2400 total points as opposed to SAT I's 1600! Every high school student should take advantage of the fact that you can take SAT II's as many times as you want. Take it every time you can to get the highest scores!

 

[Karaethon1]

<<
GPA * 1000 (4000 pts) + SAT I (1600 pts) + 3 SAT IIs (2400 pts)... for a total of 8000 pts

this is based only on this 8000 pt system, where you have to be above a certain cutoff, depending on the major (the highest cutoff is EECS, at 7600)
so basically if you had 7800, you'd automatically be admitted to your major of choice

>>



Just so you know, my index was above 7800, I had lots of extra curriculars, and lots of community service and I was still denied for EECS

 

[drewshin]

berkeley, no doubt.

i grew up in la, but went there to get away from my parents for a while.

next will prolly be ucla, ucsd, then davis...depending on what you study.

riggz

 

[SpongeBob]

If you go engineering, decide if you want to go to grad school. If yes, then pick whatever school you like. If not, go to Berkeley, cause it'll be a lot easier

This was gonna be my advice. I did a lot of research before I started undergrad and decided beforehand that I was going to grad school no matter what. With that decided I talked to a lot of people that I knew in engineering and they all said that if you have a graduate degree from a reputable institution that you're set(irregardless of your undergrad degree). That being said, all you need to do is find an undergraduate school that you like and find out if a lot of it's graduates get accepted at good grad schools.

 

[kikokam]

1. berkeley
   ucla
   ucsd

<< cal poly san luis obispo is architecture school. The BEST architects go there. >>


it's also a great engineering school, you cant imagine how many people major in EE (electrical engineer)...!

 

[swai]

<< Just so you know, my index was above 7800, I had lots of extra curriculars, and lots of community service and I was still denied for EECS >>


very very strange....
a lot of my friends with high indexes and extracurriculars were getting scholarships, and of course getting admitted to EECS
EECS admission must be getting more competitive

 

[Ameesh]

if you can get into UCSD's CS program, its the best around, professors are awsome and the undergrad program is top notch. plus your in san diego Americas finest city.



and the ucla women are ghetto trolls comapred to the girls at UCSD, come and visit during spring and you'll know what i mean




oh yeah UCSD gets more research money then all the other UC's combined.

 

[PrincessGuard]

<< i really think junior college professors care more. my aunt and uncle care much more about their students and they are jr college profs. >>


I think this is true, to a degree. I've taken classes at Ohlone College in Fremont and while the instructors are more involved with the students, academics weren't always a high priority. My Psych 101 and Public Speaking classes were easy beyond belief. The Psych instructor would literally give the answers to the tests, word for word the day before. I still wonder how people failed that class...


And go Aggies! Davis has a great folk music scene (not as big as Berkeley though), if you're into that sort of thing.

 

[BruinGuy]

<<

<<
GPA * 1000 (4000 pts) + SAT I (1600 pts) + 3 SAT IIs (2400 pts)... for a total of 8000 pts

this is based only on this 8000 pt system, where you have to be above a certain cutoff, depending on the major (the highest cutoff is EECS, at 7600)
so basically if you had 7800, you'd automatically be admitted to your major of choice

>>



Just so you know, my index was above 7800, I had lots of extra curriculars, and lots of community service and I was still denied for EECS >>



Well last year, I got into UCLA as a EECS with just over a 7400, and bunches of extra curricular activities, and loads of community service, so one's mileage does vary.

And with what school to go to/ which is the best? for me it had to do with a few things: repuation was important, but more important was how I felt there. Another major factor was the fact that since I lived in Orange County, if I needed to come home for the weekend, it was at least possible, had I gone to USB, or practically any other uc, (besides UCI), there was little hope of me being able to see my parents or some old friends more then once maybe twice a year.

 

[Kenji4861]

This question totally depends on your major and I believe that the college you get into doesn't determine if you will be successful or not. If you really love something and are good at it, you will most likely be successful. If you are telling us to rank generally, we all know UC Berkeley is the hardest to get into (again, this is generally speaking). BTW : I know some people that picked very unpopular majors with horrible grades that made it into UCB.

 

[Rickten]

personally I would like everybody to start posting what college they goto at the bottom of their post. So we can weed out the true factual opinions from the biased bull.

Ameesh I'm not saying your wrong about UCSD, but by any chance do you go there? Where did you hear about them getting the most research money, is that common knowledge that I just didn't know about or what?

 

[fishy101]

many people have mentioned academics here, so I'll pick something else to talk about - the university atmospheres. I personally rank Cal ahead of UCLA because I like the nerdy/hippy atmosphere there. Students at Cal don't go there for partying or the chicks, most of them go there to get a good education, and that's apparent in their everyday conversations. I am sure there are exceptions, but i feel Cal has a more serious "learning" atmosphere. Lastly, I also want to add that the most important part of getting a good education is not where you go, but how you do it.

 

[kikokam]

actually UCSD does get the most research money... my friend who goes there told me about it. gosh, just take a look at all their campus buildings and you know where those money went to....
but seriously, UCSD does have lots of research programs, not to mention all their buildings are spectacular

 

[mrchan]

it depends on what you're looking for. i applied to 4 UC's a coupe years back, UCB, UCLA, UCD and UCI. got into all of 'em. always thought i wanted to go to berkeley. but after talking to people that have gone to berkeley, i decided that atmosphere wasn't what i wanted. fishy101 says ucb has a 'nerdy' atmosphere, i think it's more than that, the competition in some CS and econ departments is nuts, some students sabatoge others. so i ended up going to UCD. pick the one you think you'll enjoy the most, all UC's rank VERY highly in nationwaide comparisons of colleges.

 

[oLLie]

<< if you can get into UCSD's CS program, its the best around, professors are awsome and the undergrad program is top notch. plus your in san diego Americas finest city. >>



Gonna have to disagree with that. Go to US News and World Report, check out the top Computer Science programs in Public Universities. UCI is top 10, UCSD is not. Everyone I talked to agreed that UCI is better for it's Information & Computer Science Major than UCSD's Computer Science.


Ollie

*edit* looking for the exact link, I think they changed the site so I lost it... now I look like a fool.

 

[GoldenBear]

<< Gonna have to disagree with that. Go to US News and World Report, check out the top Computer Science programs in Public Universities. UCI is top 10, UCSD is not. Everyone I talked to agreed that UCI is better for it's Information & Computer Science Major than UCSD's Computer Science.


Ollie >>

Link please?

 

[oLLie]

Since I sadly have no link to where I saw it (this was back when I chose UCI) go ahead and disregard my post as pure poopoo.



Ollie

 

[Rickten]

link to rankings