<p>I made this choice ten years ago. I chose UCI with CHP and Regents’ over UCLA, Berkeley, and a couple of top privates. I don’t regret my decision for one minute. Because I never attended UCLA, I don’t have any other first-hand experience to make any comparisons, but I thoroughly enjoyed college and will make the same decision again if I had to. For those people who don’t find it competitive at UCI, maybe they didn’t try to challenge themselves. If you ever tell a professor that you’re bored and aren’t being challenged, they WILL find something for you to do, whether it’s research, independent study, or having you go to conferences with them. The benefits of being in CHP were awesome, and it really made me feel like I mattered to the university. The CHP staff knew who I was and was able to tailor their advising to my personal profile. I did not think that I would get this at UCLA, Berkeley, or any of the other schools I got in to.</p>
<p>On a side note, I am attending UCLA next fall for graduate school. There are people that I have met that will be in my class next year at Anderson who all went to Harvard, Penn, and several other top-level universities. All I know is that I went to college for free, they paid a ton of money, and we all ended up together in the same place. So UCI was definitely a good choice for me AND my wallet.</p>