<p>As a whole, UCLA and UCSD are better than UCSB. However, UCSB is much stronger than UCLA and UCSD in ChemE. Also, UCSD’s ChemE program is still new, so you should not go to UCSD. Go to UCSB if you do not get off UCLA’s waitlist.
If you do get off UCLA’s waitlist, you should decide whether you want to go to UCSB or UCLA. Both schools cover pretty much same materials (2 quarters of thermodynamics, 3 quarters of transport processes, 1 quarter of seperation processes, …), and you cannot go wrong at either school. In term of academic program, UCSB beats UCLA. What other factors do you consider? Only you know what school better fits you. </p>