Daughter has narrowed it down to UDub vs CU-Boulder Honors. She is OOS for both and with merit scholarships the costs are nearly the same. Both campuses are beautiful with vibrant towns (important to her) and she really is having a hard time leaning one way or the other. She is looking for feedback on the benefits (if any) of the honors program at Boulder vs UDub (did not apply for honors, yet.)
She also has the following questions about both schools:
How easy is it to switch majors? (Admitted to International Studies at both)
Health insurance costs? (looks like UDub does not offer health insurance so how does she go about acquiring that)
For reference she is from the Bay Area and her parents have really tried to push her to accept one of her UC options (full pay), but with little success, so here we are. Thanks.
These two OOS schools are super popular with our Bay Area high school, too. I typically see the kids who are serious skiers (head up to Tahoe a lot, often on ski team) choose Boulder. It appears to be easier to change your major at Boulder, too.
If a more cosmopolitan city is important, I would lean toward Washington. Seattle is a more vibrant and interesting place than Boulder (and Denver too, imo, though it too is fun).
I like the Exploratory Studies major available at Boulder for undeclared students. I wish Washington had something similar. So, if your D is truly undecided, maybe that is something to look into.
I think they’re both fun schools and she’ll have a great time no matter which she picks.
Cu Boulder Honors main benefits are Honors dorm (/RAP), the small (17-student) seminars that take place in said Honors Dorm, and the enrichment opportunities.
I would consider the weather in Boulder better but that’s definitely a YMMV situation.
Admission to UW Honors was at the same time as application and decision should have been sent in March.
Thank you for the responses. I think she will deposit at Boulder as it offers more flexibility than UW. The 300 days of sunshine in Colorado is also a plus.
Smart choice assuming CU-Boulder offers health insurance to students (as you noted that UW-Seattle does not) and because she is in the Honors Program/College at CU.
We are in California and have an HMO plan that only covers certain areas of the state, so yes very inflexible. The UCs all offer plans and if she were going to UCSD (one of the other schools on her final list) then we would not have to take on additional health insurance for her. But since she will be in Colorado our insurance is only for emergencies so she will need the plan offered by CU-Boulder. For UWash, if I read the information correctly, the student would need to apply for a plan offered in the stare of Washington during the open enrollment window. Not sure why UWash does not offer a health insurance plan for domestic students but they do for internationals.
I don’t know how to change the title of this thread, is one of the moderators could help me with that I would appreciate it. Daughter was admitted off the waitlist at UCSB so now the choice is between CU (Honors) and UCSB.
I just came across the pros and cons she listed for each.
UCSB
PROS - cost (20K cheaper), closer to home (5 hour drive) and close to aunts/cousins/grandparents in LA, higher ranking and better reputation, google systems (think mail, drive, docs - yes she actually wrote that as a pro), beach
CONS - too much of a social scene, UC system (I think she means the bureaucracy and potential cuts), harder to switch majors
CU- Boulder
PROS - honors program, easier to switch majors, location, research opportunities, only person from school going there
CONS - cost, farther from home, travel expense, Microsoft outlook instead of Google suite (don’t know why this is so important to her)
I think the one aspect of UCSB that worries her is Isla Vista. I told her Boulder is just as much of a party school but with a more classically beautiful campus and higher price tag. She wants a social life and strong academics but not an all out party school. She turned down UCSD because of the lack of social life and is looking for school that will give her a good balance.
Thoughts? Also any feedback from parents of UCSB students and the realities of Isla Vista?
What majors could she be interested in changing to?
CU Boulder probably has similar levels of bureaucracy as a big state university. It is also known for having a fraternity system that refused to comply with campus rules for recognition and went completely off campus. That the unrecognized off-campus fraternity chapters are more numerous than the campus-recognized fraternity chapters suggests that there is a rather large party scene with not even nominal campus supervision that fraternities have at many campuses.
The Honors college should be an academic plus. They would be the main difference imho.
In terms of partying both would be the same.
And the cost difference could be a pretty big deal so it all depends what it means to your family.
Except that at our NorCal high school, the wealthy party kids generally didn’t get admitted to UCSB, so more of them went to Boulder instead. I think the increased difficulty of admission has changed things more at UCSB in the last couple of decades than at CU.
party kids can be win-win if your student is not so inclined. Kids getting wasted on a Friday/Saturday night wake up with a hangover in the morning. Kids not partying the previous night, can get up and start working on homework in the morning. (credit academic Dean at a Ivy.)
UCSB is a huge school and the social life can be what you make it.
I imagine that she may be weighting the fact that it’s in state and a lot of her high school classmates may be going (I saw that mentioned on her list) a bit too heavily. I say that bc my D22 had to get over that same thing when she picked UCLA over other OOS options. 18 kids from her class chose UCLA, including a frenemy she was looking forward to leaving behind. Three years in, I’m happy to report that she rarely ever runs into any of those classmates. They all found their social niches in a big enough school that absorbed and swallowed all of them.
To me, this isn’t even a comparison. She got into one of the top publics in our state. That is amazing! You will also be grateful for the price tag and the easy trips home.
I think in some ways she might feel like she won’t really be leaving the Bay Area if she goes to SB. Many of her high school classmates are going to UCSD (she got in too really did not like it) and UCLA (her dream school but was waitlisted) so there won’t be too many there, it is more that she knows so many kids from SF/Marin that are on the SBCC to UCSB path and she is looking for an escape from the Bay Area culture. And she also realizes that many kids from this area end up at CU-Boulder as well, hence being known as the 10th UC, and that their personalities may be different than hers (she is not a skier, not into a lot of partying, and we are not wealthy). I think she is holding on to CU because she spent a good amount of her childhood visiting grandparents in Boulder (who no longer live there) and loves Colorado.
But she is a practical and frugal kid so I think she will pick UCSB unless, of course, UCLA comes through for her.
I understand. We’re in Marin and my kids aren’t fans of the prevailing social vibes, though they both managed to find a handful of friends they enjoyed. My D22 keeps up with only 1 best friend from high school, just 3 years out. She has limited interest in the rest as they’ve scattered.
And I can see the appeal of Boulder given her family history with the town and the honors college.
