Community college and transferring to a UC much more cost effective if you want to take that route and maintain a high GPA. Also the CSU system is a great education at a more affordable cost compared to UC’s although you will probably be a commuter. UC Merced is already ranked #85 (US News Top Public Colleges) which is very good for a brand new campus that will grow and improve rapidly. So many options for Californians!
In my opinion, UCI will become top 3 within 10 years. It’s because Irvine City is supporting it. It probably rose up the most in rankings out of all UCs.
UCI lacks a good college town though, although it does have a small decent shopping center next to the school. It’s like Stanford in that sense, although Stanford is closer to SF than Irvine is to Los Angeles.
I went to UCI for grad school back when it was not nearly as well known as it is now and took classes from a professor who later got a Nobel Prize so yes there is some advantage to going to a new campus that is on the rise.
Also I live pretty near Disneyland and commuted to UCI for eight years and it is not 10 minutes!!!
@TTdd16:
“I don’t know why some seem to think it makes students entitled for being disappointed at admission results at some of the other UCs that were never quite this competitive before-we understand there are a wealth of good colleges in California–but I do think it shows a lack of familiarity of the state.”
Because it’s gotten very competitive everywhere, not just in CA, for schools the quality of the top and even middle UCs and there are many states where the best in-state public is no better than UC-Riverside.
UCI has a good medical school, law school and a golf course. Maybe I will rent out rooms to UCI students since my house is only 10 minutes away by car. I am afraid they will party too much though. lol
@VickiSoCal We use the 261/241 toll roads and are always amazed how short our travel time is to UCI/Irvine spectrum. I may have been a bit generous in underestimating the Disneyland drive, but not by much. Those toll roads into south Orange County are worth every penny!
I’m not sure the toll roads help from DL area. 5 south to 55 there are no toll options.
@websensation We’ll probably be hitting you up to rent one of those rooms M-Th in 2019 to save kid from hefty commute time. Computer Science major and certainly not a party kid.
@CopperlineX2 Do you think students can afford toll roads? Probably the spoiled and entitled ones can
Tolls for the referenced toll roads are shown here:
http://www.thetollroads.com/sites/default/files/FY18_RateCard.pdf
@collegedad13 the tollroad price is a nobrainer compared to forking over Orange County room and board prices. $10 a day is acceptable.
@collegedad13 If my kiddo was truly spoiled and entitled I wouldn’t be terrified of his potentially choosing UCSD CS over UCI and burying us in room and board fees! I don’t want to limit his choices, but being middle class and coming up with all these fees is tough.
@CopperlineX2, living on campus is a different experience from commuting to school as well.
“Riverside and Merced are situated in inland locations that are considered less attractive. Riverside is growing tremendously–but that has a lot to do with the coastal areas becoming so crazy expensive again and people moving there because housing costs so much less. That’s not to say you can’t get a great education at Riverside or Merced–and there’s tremendous value to graduating with a UC degree, regardless of the campus. But the stats of kids who attend there are lower than at the so-called top tier UCs and the campuses get many fewer applications. I don’t know why some seem to think it makes students entitled for being disappointed at admission results at some of the other UCs that were never quite this competitive before-we understand there are a wealth of good colleges in California–but I do think it shows a lack of familiarity of the state.”
Very true about “less attractive” inland locations. And yes, housing costs much less compared to the coast. Growing up in South Orange County as a lifelong surfer and competitive tennis player, I’m completely familiar with the state. While the average stats of UC Riverside may not be as high as “top tier UC’s” (definitely go to Berkeley/UCLA if you can!) they are rapidly increasing in parity to “mid tier UC’s”. Average student stats at UCR…3.7GPA, 27 ACT, 1190 SAT, with about a 50% student acceptance rate. No walk in the park and getting tougher every year! In terms of UCR getting “many fewer applications”, this is incorrect. Actually (for Fall 2018) UCR had a 12.4 percent increase in applicants…the LARGEST OF ANY UC CAMPUS for a reason!
I only said “entitled” because back in my day you could only apply to ONE UC (should still be that way…would really simplify things). If you didn’t make it there, you “manned up” and chose one of the few other options without complaining and realized that ANY UC was a blessing! You could not apply to “every UC” like today…so tired of people complaining they didn’t make Berkeley/UCLA even though they can apply to EVERY UC if they wanted to (although many still won’t choose Riverside, Merced, Santa Cruz, or Davis due to inland locations or “lower tier”). Have NO SYMPATHY for them!
Why is that? Well I wasn’t sure what ONE UC I wanted…was considering Biology and Business Administration. UCI was boring back then and 15 minutes from my house…didn’t want to be a commuter (wanted that freshman dorm experience) so that was out. UCLA was not my “dream school” but decided to apply there in Biology last minute more due to “peer pressure” and “name”. Didn’t make it…got redirected to Santa Cruz and Riverside. Santa Cruz was really far away and didn’t have Bio-Med or Business Administration, or even grades back then but only “written evaluations”. Probably good I didn’t go there as I would have ditched classes so much when the surf was up that I probably would have dropped out!
Riverside was closer, had Bio-Med (now Thomas Haider Program), and my major of Business Administration (Berkeley only other location to have it back then) so I chose it. I also was a competitive tennis player…had the chance to play at UCR (wasn’t on scholarship though like my freshman roommate) which I only did briefly due to academic pressure/priority. The Thomas Haider Program was EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE…really a bloodbath! Switched to Business Administration second year (not sure you can still do that now?) and never looked back! Received a top notch education and college experience and wouldn’t have it any other way from this HIGHLANDER FOR LIFE!!
@Fisherman99, actually, transferring is not always the most cost effective, unfortunately.
https://edsource.org/2017/transfer-maze-awaits-california-community-college-students-advocacy-group-says/587074
@Fisherman99, your information on the number of freshman applications per campus is incorrect. Yes, Riverside had a jump in percentage at 12.2%. UCSB had the highest jump at 12.5%. All campuses had record numbers. But UCLA had the highest number of freshman applications, ever, of any university in the country, followed by UCSD with the second highest number. (Whoops, forgot Cal at first.)
UCLA: 113,409
UCSD 97,670
UCI: 94,866
UCSB: 92,017
UCB: 89,294
UCD: 77,727
UCSC: 56,106
UCR: 48,755
UCM: 23,778
(Source: UC Office of President, Student Affairs in December 2017.)
@Fisherman99, actually, transferring is not always the most cost effective, unfortunately. Since I can’t seem to post a link to the article, Google, “Transfer Maze Awaits California Community College Students”.
“@Fisherman99, your information on the number of freshman applications per campus is incorrect. Yes, Riverside had a jump in percentage at 12.2%. UCSB had the highest jump at 12.5%. All campuses had record numbers.”
“Transfer Maze” definitely an issue…sounds like it can be a nightmare! I wasn’t talking about “number of applications” which UCLA definitely wins in, but “percentage increase”…the ucr.edu website actually says a 12.4% hike in applicants for fall 2018 over fall 2017, the largest increase of any campus in the UC system. A slight variance there but sounds similar to UCSB in terms of percentage. UCR supposed to grow to 40,000 students in the future which is pretty crazy as well! And no…I’m not hitting “post comment” 5 times here since I know I’m not timed out lol!
It also shows 60,265 total applicants (both freshman and transfer) with the largest percentage increase of transfer applications of ANY UC CAMPUS at 13.2 percent.