USC, UCI, UCSB, or UCSD for engineering

OsakaDad
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 06:58:53 +0000

Good advice from bruno14. Apply to all and then choose after you get accepted. UCSB is probably the closest to what you are looking for culture wise. Santa Barbara is a “hippy” (not hipster) town and laid back. One thing to keep in mind – there are NO “laid back” non-competitive engineering programs at the level you are talking about.

I’ve toured all these schools and know a lot about each program.

USC - Private school, good rep, more conservative compared to the UCs. Extremely urban in location. North of the school is just fine. Any other direction and you are in the hood. Campus itself is quite safe. Good engineering rep among local employers in LA. Top 25 nationally ranked school. Very loyal alumni. Will cost you close to $50k annually.
UCI - Great “up and comer” among the UC’s and nationally ranked. Orange county so not too many hipsters. Large Asian student body (not an issue for me as we are a mixed Asian family). Suburban.
UCSD - Great engineering department. ON THE BEACH! I’ve never seen such views in my life at a university campus. Suburban. Santa Barbara is a laid back town and ultra liberal. Expect some of that culture to influence the school. Well earned party school rep.
UCSD - Fantastic engineering department. Better than UCLA and second only to Berkeley among the UCs in my opinion. Suburban in location. Liberal school, conservative neighborhood. Really cool set up for the different colleges. The closest thing to the Claremont Consortium among public schools that I have ever seen.

You should also apply to Cal Poly SLO if you are interested in cool towns near the beach. However, Cal Poly has a very low transfer acceptance rate.