Ohio State vs UC Irvine vs UC San Diego

College Search & Lists
1

Hey guys,

So I got accepted into Ohio State (Mechanical Engineering w/ 14.5k USD scholarship per year), UC Irvine (Mechanical Engineering w/ no scholarship I think), and UCSD (Economics and Mathematics joint major, it was my secondary choice). I don’t know what to choose out of the three and I need any opinions. Ohio State’s program for ME is a lot higher in terms of ranking than UCI (according to QS rankings), but I like the environment in UCI better. I really wanted to go to UCSD for engineering, but I didn’t get into their engineering department so quite sad. What should I do?

thanks for ur opinions in advance :slight_smile:

2

Are you instate to any of the schools and how important is cost?

3

I’m an international student from Hong Kong

4

Does cost matter to you? It seems like Ohio State would provide a better value, but if you want warmer weather and are willing to pay for it then choose Irvine.

5

Not advisable to attend UCSD for engineering if you did not get admitted to your desired engineering major: https://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/assets/includes/academic/docs/Capped_Majors_FAQ.pdf

6

Go with UCI. Rankings are sort of a crapshoot once you go past the top 20. College Choice has UCI as the highest for Mech Engineering, ranked #28.

7

Go with Ohio State as the class sizes are very small for a large university. Los Angeles area may be more fun, but Ohio State for engineering, is the better program. Also Ohio State has fantastic mathematics, thats very important for engineers. Ohio State also offers a top statistics program in the USA. Also, Columbus is arguably a fun city, with sports including professional soccer. Ohio is beautiful green with four seasons.

California has a lot of fires. Its hotter than most people realize for weather, over in Orange County area. Irvine is a flashy school for theatre, and up and coming for engineering. There is no doubt that U of California is a name brand in Hong Kong, though if that matters to you. Irvine will have more Asian American students, and Latino students if any of that matters to you.

Irvine is moving up the ranks, but another problem, you will NOT be able to register for any computer science classes, which you NEED, as Irvine is very overcrowded in computer science.

Ohio State is well ranked for all technical fields, has the better American Football team,(if of interest!) and also easier to register for classes.