I don’t doubt that DS would happy with small classes and getting to work closely with professors-I just don’t want to pay more for that experience. He will attend UCD admit day and hopefully meet and connect with other CS students. He mentioned needing some UCD swag yesterday- so that’s a good sign. I am still glad we are going through this -at times messy-college decision journey - I think he has learned a lot about himself and where he will thrive.
One other pro (in my opinion) in favor of UCD for DS, that I haven’t seen discussed a lot on these forums- Both DH and I grew up in Northern California, went to UCD with a majority of NCal kids at the time. We still live in NCal and so do most of our UCD friends. It has been wonderful to have so many college friends and their families within an hour or two away for the past 30 years. UCD is now more geographically diverse - which is a great - but he will probably have more local connections post college than if he went to a small and/or out of state school.
Again- thanks everyone all for the help. You are all a wealth of information and resources. I think we have all the info we need to make the decision for now. I hope this post has helped others.