Has anyone here turned down UCLA for UCSD?

Essenar
Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:16:49 +0000

I’m a transfer applicant, so this likely doesn’t apply to me, but in a way I did choose SD over LA even if I didn’t apply.

I spoke to the Engineering department there, and people here, and based on my stats as a transfer, I was considered a match for not just LA but Berkeley.

In the end, I decided to visit UCLA. It was on my top 3 list of colleges to apply to at the time. The engineering department there was impressed with my stats and encouraged me to apply whereas I overheard them talking to other students and basically gave them the cold shoulder. “Well we look for a little more than that”.

In the end, I just didn’t feel the campus. Uphill climb to residential areas. Science majors are separated from art majors. North & South campus. People just stand around talking.

At UCSD I just felt it was more of a college environment to me. Everything is placed nicely, the library is nicer (in my opinion), the engineering school is right next to the library and not distant from the campus “over there with those science weirdos”. It just made a better impression.

So in the end, I didn’t even apply to UCLA and just kept Berkeley and UCSD as my choices.