<p>Can anyone give me a little information about those colleges or which one is better?</p>
<p>UCSB is the best out of the three.</p>
<p>UCSB and UCSD are probably about equal and SDSU trails them both. </p>
<p>Some majors are better at some schools than others though. What do you plan on majoring in?</p>
<p>ucsb is probably a little better overall.</p>
<p>SB and UCSD are in a whole different league as sd state, why are you comparing these?</p>
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<p>Better for what? UCSD is pretty much always ranked higher than UCSB and a lot higher than SDSU on most ranking systems, including USNews. But your mileage may vary depending on what you are looking for in a school and what your intended major is. </p>
<p>UCSD has a medical school, which the other two lack. And it sits right in the middle of a major hotbed for biotech, so it tends to be stronger in those kinds of biomedical and bioengineering programs. SDSU offers an undergraduate Business major, which the other two lack. It also is only one of the three to have a football team. What are you looking for?</p>
<p>Overall, I think UCSD is better, especially for engineering. For UCSB, it is better at oceanography and nice place to live with beautiful beaches. I dont know much about SDSU</p>
<p>^oceanography…that is definitely not UCSB’s best department (although they have good facilities)</p>
<p>UCSB is a physics school
UCSD is an engineering school</p>
<p>UCSB - the compact housing arrangement (Isla Vista) makes for a great party scene. Beautiful setting – right ON the water. Good in physical sciences. The lowest diversity of the nine UCs.</p>
<p>UCSD - I agree with above poster – very good in engineering, especially related to medicine. Pretty campus, but not on the water as some think… Not much of a party atmosphere. </p>
<p>San Diego St. – cheaper than the other two by about $5,000, bigger, and more of a frat/athletic scene. Hardest Cal St. to get into after Cal Poly SLO. Approx. equiv. in quality to Riverside and Merced for undergrad, but very little grad school status. Has more pre-biz majors than the other two combined. The top half at SDSU could have also gotten into UC Riverside and UC Merced, but chose the atmosphere/location at SDSU.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but anyone who thinks UCSB is better (overall) than UCSD is out of their mind.</p>
<p>Well, I know you go to UCSD and I go to UCSB so we each have our biases, but I think there’s more to look at than just the ranking the university has on US News. When you combine UCSB’s great academics, great location, active social scene, Division I Athletics, and excellent school spirit, one can make an argument that all those factors make up for the lower academic rankings it has compared to UCSD.</p>
<p>to argue that better means four crummy rating points (42 vs. 38) 2008 rankings) is splitting the smallest of hairs… almost as absurd as arguing between Irvine, Santa Barbara and Davis…all within two points of each other. Or arguing between Berkeley and UCLA for undergrad.</p>
<p>Within wide groupings, the issue is much more one of strength in a major, social opportunities, and the geography.</p>
<p>I completely agree with the above poster – UCSD is slightly higher ranked in USNWR (and also significantly higher in the NRC Ph.D. rankings), but when does the location, social scene, and athletics tip the choice in favor of UCSB? Strictly a person decision that has nothing to do with a person being “out of their miind”.</p>
<p>And that is exactly the problem with being better “overall”. There is no such thing as “overall”. I am not “overall”, I am me. Each one is he/she, not “overall”. “Overall” is an irrelevance, an aggregation of weighted values of criteria which mostly are irrelevant to an individual.</p>
<p>I would bet that if you polled the people who were admitted to both UCSD and UCSB, the two schools would split rather evenly on which the admittee chose to attend (based on their <em>own</em> set of weighted criteria, not those of USNWR.) I attended Stanford and UCLA, each for its own set of reasons. If I were applying today, between UCSB and UCSD, I would choose UCSB in a heartbeat.</p>
<p>^ I usually don’t go by USNWR for these kinds of things (and by the way, that’s NINE rating points now, rankings change each year which is why I believe they’re total BS), I base it more on the admissions statistics. But yeah, academics shouldn’t be the only factor - and I didn’t mean to offend anyone, I just felt like I needed to say something after reading the first few posts in this thread.</p>
<p>Let me rephrase what I said: If you’re looking at overall prestige, it goes UCSD>UCSB>SDSU. However, UCSD’s party scene/athletics may be described as somewhat lacking when compared to the other two.</p>
<p>UCSD is the best out of the three…</p>
<p>SDSU should not even be considered…</p>
<p>and UCSB is i think the 6th best UC after UCB,UCLA,UCSD,UCD,UCI</p>
<p>Smartkidd – it would be good if you fleshed out why you think UCSB is behind the UCs located in SD, D and I.</p>
<p>Strength in a particular Major/Concentration?
Geography?
Social Scene?</p>
<p>As far as rankings go, the schools in Irvine, Davis and Santa Barbara have been so closely or identically ranked over the past 15-20 years that you can’t possibly be referring to rankings.</p>
<p>since the OP lives in CA the best thing to to is visit while school is in session. You probably know people from your HS who are current students; even better, they are home now on break. Talk to some of them, make arrangements to visit for a nite and crash on their floor in a sleeping bag. Walk around campus and vicinity, accompany your friends to some classes, to meals in their dorms (you can buy meal passes) and talk to the people at the table, etc. You’ll get a feel for which is right for you.</p>
<p>UCSD is better than the other two, but UCSB is a much better school than SDSU. UCSB has an underratted engineering program and its the 4th best UC after UC Berkeley, UCLA and UCSD. </p>
<ol>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
<li>UCSB</li>
<li>UC Irvine</li>
<li>UC Davis</li>
</ol>
<p>…</p>
<p>SDSU</p>