What do you recommend? This is for in state student.
They are all good schools!
It would help to give more information, for example,
- what factors the student is currently weighing in the decision
- what they see as pros/cons
- what they are looking for in a school and a major
- what questions they may have about these schools
- etc.
If I were the student, I would start by looking at the 4 year curriculum for each school and compare these directly. Is this what the student wants to learn and do? Does the coursework look intriguing and useful? How much flexibility is there, in terms of electives and ability to take classes outside the major? What about the breadth requirements at this UC campus?
Have you visited or plan to visit each school? Other than comparing the CS curriculum noted by @tamagotchi , what are the other college priorities?
Location, weather, housing, social environment, transportation accessibility, costs?
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UCI has a really good CS program. I’d go with UCI.
If we are going with US News CS rankings (which I don’t always agree with), UCSB > UCI > UCD. I personally think these schools are too close in academic rigor and job placement to definitively say which one is “better.” I think UCSB scores the highest in terms of median salary, but again this is probably immaterial.
They are all pretty similar schools, so I’d pick based on fit. UC Davis is a cute college town, but its location may not be appealing to some students. UC Santa Barbara is legitimately right on the beach! Great college town, although a bit isolated. UC Irvine is more of a commuter school, but I’m sure lots of students have an active social life. Irvine is also in a beautiful location with great food imo.
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I agree! I do not think there is a “better” or “best” school among these.
I would also recommend choosing on fit, making sure to take into account both non-academic fit factors as mentioned in your post, and academic fit factors as I mentioned above 
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You’re asking complete strangers on the Internet where your child should attend?
All three of those schools are extremely different.
They are different in location, size, transportation, and personality.
What works for one student is not going to work for another student.
Santa Barbara is on the coast, has bikes, has a little bit of a party atmosphere given the beach atmosphere, but it is a strong school.
Irvine is in a suburban area with lots of commuter students who attend there. It’s a very busy campus and is also a strong school. They have a lot of alliances with a number of corporate international brands because they’re so close to Orange and LA County industry.
(None of our children liked the campus but that could be the way my kids expected a college campus to be.)
Our middle child attended Davis: she loved it! It’s in the middle of farmland but it has a cute college town within the school area.
There are 40,000 bikes on campus. The town is made such that biking takes precedence over vehicles. It’s a strong supportive collaborative environment within and among the students. They have free tutoring in the dorm buildings and they like encouraging their students to collaborate.
There is a train that comes to the center of town such that the students can travel to Berkeley or San Francisco. The state capital of Sacramento is 20 minutes by freeway; political science majors can intern at our state capital.
It is closer to Silicon Valley than being in LA County. It has the number one vet school in the nation and one of the dorms sits across the road from the dairy.
So you need to make some campus visits and decide because you/your child will know immediately if that’s the right school.
Most kids from Southern California take Southwest flights to Sacramento. So that travel adds to your budget when you have to travel by air. But there are always cheap Southwest flights for less than $100.
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