Hi I’m having trouble deciding between UCSD, UcI honors or Scripps College. I am a Psychology major and I’m worried that I won’t get as much individual attention and recommendations from professors from public schools. However I am also worried about the cost of private education and the fact that Scripps is an all girls school. If anyone could give any advice it would be appreciated!!
I assume you must be from California… have you visited all three? If you are not sure how you would feel about the single-gender aspect at Scripps, a visit is the best way to see how it feels to you. There are, as everyone always points out, lots of men in the Consortium, many of whom will be in your classes and activities and generally milling around the five campuses. It isn’t the same as all going to a single co-ed school with 6-7K students, but the ways in which it isn’t the same can be a positive or a negative depending on your particular temperament and preferences.
Three-way decisions are hard. If I were you, I would weigh UCSD vs. UCI Honors first, and decide which you would attend if you took the UC route. Again, visit both if you haven’t. (My D thought she would like UCSD - it looked perfect on paper - and then she really didn’t. But of course others change their minds in the opposite direction!) Honors at UCI could do a lot to mitigate the disadvantages of a large UC, so look at the program and experience closely - it might be your best-of-all-worlds option. UCSD has some notable strengths, but I’m not sure that going there for an undergrad psych degree would capitalize on many of those strengths. Look at the core curriculum for the particular residential college you got into, and compare that to the core requirements for UCI Honors. Weight the experience that you-in-particular would have more heavily than “rank” or perceived “reputation,” because both are plenty well-regarded. Pretend you didn’t have the Scripps option at all, pick your UC, and take the other one off the table. If you don’t do this first, you’ll be tempted to weigh Scripps against an amalgam of UCSD/UCI (i.e. “I could get smaller classes at UCI Honors… and UCSD has Residential Colleges…”) which isn’t reality because you can’t have both UC experiences!
Once you’ve picked your UC front-runner, then look at the top-notch LAC experience at Scripps in comparison. Yes, you’ll experience more competition for resources at UC, for sure. But then again… if you’re paying sticker price… golly, you could take a friend with you to UC for what Scripps would cost! If you’re getting some FA or merit $, then of course the equation looks different… but you’re indicating that for you, Scripps would be more expensive. Think about what you’d be getting for your money, and also about what additional experiences and opportunities that additional money could buy. How does the 5Cs experience stack up against UC+X, where X is the coolest thing you can think of doing with the additional money? Will you need that money (or lack-of-debt) for grad school? An undergrad psych degree very often isn’t an end-point. Also, where do you hope to take that psych degree? Are research opportunities a priority, or is in-depth discourse with faculty and peers more important?
Honestly, there are no bad choices here - congrats on having great options! All of the factors involved are very individual - financially, socially, aspirationally - so you just have to figure out what fits your priorities the best. As a 5C’s parent, I’ll say that there are some terrific opportunities in general and amazing psych faculty in particular… but for my D, the financial difference between Scripps and UC wasn’t huge, so YMMV! Anyway, hope these thoughts are helpful, and good luck!!
In terms of professor interaction, every prof I’ve had at UCSD save one or two has been really open to interacting with undergraduates and pointing them in the right direction. If you want to participate in research, labs are always hiring and pretty much all of my Psych major friends have been in a lab at one point or another (unusual, from my understanding of Psych programs at most schools). Definitely check out all the schools, and I like the idea @aquapt had about choosing a UC first so you can compare that school to Scripps on its own. What are some other priorities you have for college? Are you planning on going to graduate school or into medicine?