<p>Hi!</p>
<p>My son and I will be visiting San Diego during Spring Break and plan on visiting UCLA. Can anyone give us the run down on other colleges to visit that are in the same general area as UCLA?? We have heard that traffic is a mess and should if at all possible schedule only two per day to enable the inevitable rush hour. We know all the San Diego schools but were thinking of visiting Northridge as well. Is that near UCLA? Is CSN near Universal Studios?</p>
<p>Any information would be greatly appreciated</p>
<p>Shae</p>
<p>northridge to ucla would be 3o min to 1hr depending on the time of day…figure 1 hr</p>
<p>other schools in la area: usc (so central la) ; loyola (onla a few miles apart), cal state long beach (south la county)</p>
<p>Cal State Northridge is about 20 minutes from UCLA…with no traffic. With traffic on the 405 freeway it can take 45 minutes to an hour. </p>
<p>Universal Studios is off the 101 freeway in the Cahuenga pass. </p>
<p>Personally, I would drive up on the 405 North from San Diego early, tour UCLA…hop on the 405 North and head down into the SF Valley, tour Cal State Northridge, then take the 405 back to the 101 and head east towards Universal Studios. You can get to Universal Studios from Northridge in about 25-30 minutes.</p>
<p>Cal State Northridge (CSUN) is about a 30 minute drive north of UCLA. It is in the San Fernando Valley…the 405 freeway runs north/south from San Diego all the way through the valley. You might want to consider touring Loyola Marymount (private) as it is relatively close to UCLA. Only other UC in S. Cal (other than UC San Diego) is UC Riverside…which is east of UCLA about an hour without traffic. UC Santa Barbara is north up the 101 freeway…about 2 hours from UCLA. Other Cal States in so cal are Fullerton, Long Beach, Pomona, LA, Channel Islands, Dominguez Hills. Check out CSU mentor site for map. CSUN is about 30 minutes from Universal Studios. I would not schedule anymore than 2 tours per day…one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Mapquest your distances to get an idea of how much time you need to get from one site to the next. Are you looking for anything in particular in a major?</p>
<p>If you are considering private schools, Occidental is about a 20-30 minute drive east of Universal Studios. </p>
<p>If you are using Mapquest to estimate drive times, use the maximum time in traffic as your estimate. The drive from San Diego to LA can take anywhere from 2-4 hours, depending on traffic.</p>
<p>UCI is between LA and San Diego</p>
<p>USC, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Los Angeles, Occidental, Pepperdine, Loyola</p>
<p>UCs in the area near UCLA</p>
<p>UCSD
UCI is between
UCR is about one hour to the east of UCSD
UCSB if u want to drive a little up</p>
<p>that’s it</p>
<p>You did mention Cal States, which are not UCs but some good schools (targeted to the top 40% of the states graduates (vs. top 12% for UCs), with some overlap in selectivity with the UCs like Riverside and Merced. Cal States that I would consider are:</p>
<ul>
<li>San Diego St. (the most popular, and most Big U like of all of the Cal States)</li>
<li>Cal St. Fullerton</li>
<li>Long Beach State</li>
<li>Cal St. Northridge</li>
</ul>
<p>These Cal States typically attract the top 20% of graduates… they’re at the top of the 12% - 40% band.</p>
<p>The best of all is Cal Poli San Luis Obisbo, but that is a 3 hour drive north of UCLA.</p>
<p>University of California- Irivine ( similar spelled )</p>