<p>You hear the names of colleges with reputation in front of them and instantly you are brought to an imaginative realm of knowledge goodness. What are really the choices that you should be going to a college besides the name? I don’t really know what are the benefits from a famous from another college’s name I never heard of. Must people just mention names and everyone seem to understand why the school is so good. Hell, I don’t know why. Someone explain to me why going to that certain school like UC for a bachelor degree for 4/+ years is good and not other colleges.</p>
<p>The education you receive at the very best of schools and then good schools will be comparable. There’s only a vast difference when you compare MIT with noname U that hasn’t had any graduate get a job. For example, there is basically no difference in education with a #8 ranked school compared to a #24 ranked. The only difference comes once you graduate and are looking for a job. Employers might be more familiar with say, MIT, than RPI, if they aren’t in the region. Both are good engineering schools, but some employers, the ones that don’t invest in researching, will be like RPI? Never heard of it. But if it’s a big company they’ll know that both schools are good.</p>
<p>ya i know i dont get it iether my mom is all oh UC is like the best and you should aplly for like all of them and start early and stuff. when i mention a community colledge she hates the idea of it cause she thinks its where people go when they get rejected by everything els.</p>
<p>I’m sure when you graduate the employer does take glance where you go went for college but its not the deciding factor. Its the degree you earned not the college you went to that granted you the degree that’ll get you the job. So if any college can grant the same degree with maybe a little difference in learning capabilities, why would a UC or a Harvard be your choice?</p>
<p>To epal
There’s nothing wrong with the community college. It provides someone an opportunity to decide on an appropriate direction for his/her life. Not everyone is cut-out for the competition at UC or the large campus. The classes at the junior college is smaller, the campus is smaller, and many of the instructors are PhD’s in their respective field (they don’t do research). The instructors at the community college really want to teach and really want to see their students do well in college. The 2 years at a junior college is a great time for a someone who is undecided to really find direction in their life.
Anyway, at the California community college, you do your lower division classes and then can get guaranteed admission to the UC of your choice provided you take the required classes and maintain a certain GPA.</p>
<p>Every school has a different list of attributes that make it “good.” Since you mentioned the UCs specifically, I guess I’ll talk about them.
- Each of the UCs features some of the top faculty in the world, doing high-level, important research. Though this does not ensure that the faculty are good teachers, it means that a student with initiative can have the opportunity to participate in very interesting research and gain valuable skills.
- The students at the UCs are generally strong, as they only accept the top 12.5% of California high school graduates. A lot of learning in college happens outside the classroom, so intelligent, hard-working fellow students with whom one can interact strengthen a learning experience. Additionally, in discussion based classes especially, it is difficult to gain anything if other students are reluctant to participate or cannot come up with interesting contributions.
- If you are a California resident, in-state tuition at the UCs is much less than at almost any other college where both of my previous points are true. Thus, they allow one to get a very good education at a reasonable price.</p>
<p>UCs are teh awesome and everyone should apply to them. :)</p>
<p>UCs are better than pretty much every state university with the exceptions of UMIch, UVA and possibly UIUC.</p>
<p>It is a good deal for most Californian students since they would pay less unless they get a lot of money from private schools.</p>
<p>“UCs are better than pretty much every state university with the exceptions of UMIch, UVA and possibly UIUC.”</p>
<p>UC Riverside > UW madison </p>
<p>???</p>
<p>i dont think so, sorry to say. i think the only two good schools in califorinia are Berkeley(best one) and USC(because its not UC). UCLA has to many transfers. it would be better if it just became a transfers school</p>
<p>so stanford, the claremont schools, and caltech aren’t ‘good’</p>
<p>I always heard “oh go to UC” and I never saw anything wrong with that till I started researching. UCs just dont seem like the right environment for me (exept for the social life and extremely wide range of activities). It all depends on what type of environment you will function well in.</p>
<p>The class sizes seem like a horrible experience, and thus for me, maybe not for you, a bad education.</p>
<p>I need private attention.</p>
<p>lol sounds like a medical issue</p>
<p>Besides going to a school for its reputation. I’d look into the geographic region of the school. Is it prone to have higher income jobs or lower? For instance, when graduating from Berkeley with an engineering degree, there’s obviously a good chance of landing a nearby job in silicon valley. Also, if you’re going to school at UCLA, there’s a good chance to get a job in Los Angeles. Then look at UC Santa Barbara. Its in the suburbs and none of the top flight firms go there to recruit. But is the education inferior such that it isn’t worth looking to? Well no, its not that bad. Some would say UCSB would not even compare to UCLA. But that’s just what people say. There’s really no such thing as a bad education unless the teacher manipulates you into thinking what is wrong as right, don’t get me wrong some teachers do do that. So to answer your question, what else should u look for? A good geographic location with higher income positions but a low cost of living. That way, when graduating, it ensures a successful and lucrative career. Of course, you wouldn’t want a 75k job in New York City versus a 75K job in Los Angeles. Because in NYC you’ll be living in poverty.</p>
<p>Ambiance. Different schools provide different atmospheres. Some such as public ucs are extremely competitive because of a large amount of students. Going to a good small college provides individuals with close attention from instructors/professors. Some like the small setting and others thrive on competition. It all depends.</p>
<p>Academic celebrities. UCSB’s economics program has a noble prize winner. But not everyone is flockign to UCSB to take economics. Some may consider learning from a noble prize winner an honor and some don’t. </p>
<p>Cost. Colleges in rural settings provide low living costs as far as rent etc. To live near UCLA’s campus it would cost nearly $1000-$1500/month for a good 1 bedroom apartment. Whereas going to nearby UC Riverside, an apartment will be much cheaper from $700-$1000.</p>
<p>Those are just a few reasons to consider.</p>
<p>There’s absolutely nothing wrong with going to a community college. Many people may laugh at the idea but transferring into a four year is not uncommon. There’s a huge cost reduction to spend two years in community college. For instance, tuition would cost only $26 per unit(in california) and the typical student takes 30 units per year. 26* 30 = $780 versus a full year of tuition at a UC which ranges from 6400-7000.</p>
<p>However, there are certain aspects that one should look into when choosing the right community college. If you decide to stay in the public system and choose a cal state or university of california school, there are set tracks for all cccs to transfer into the csu/uc system. assist.org provides students with the courses that she must take in order to transfer from a ccc to the csu/uc system. Also, certain cccs have transfer guarantees with different csu/uc schools. For instance, my school has a transfer admission guarantee for students wishing to go to uc riverside. Pretty much, when a student starts at my school, she signs a contract with UC Riverside and takes certain courses etc and upon completion is guaranteed admission into UC Riverside. Our school also has a TAP(Transfer Alliance Program) with UCLA to ensure that honors students from my school receive priority consideration for acceptance to UCLA.</p>
<p>I personally like the CCC system because it provides a small setting for teachers and students to get know one another. The bad thing is that many students lack the discipline to act like adults. I would honestly say that it is like high school all over again. However, aside from the fact that many times, you’ll run into high school buddies, its only two years.</p>
<p>lol riverside/merced rock only because you can leave half your app blank and still get in. its all about ucb/la/sd <– if you want to go to mexico where ‘over 21 laws’ become 'over 18" ones.</p>
<p>Honestly, if you dont like the idea of going to a UC, dont apply. Like ppl have said before, its not for everyone. Personally, I hate it when ppl apply to UC even though they know they wont go b/c you might be taking away the spot of someone else. Also, sorry to say but I hate it when out of state kids apply. Its the University of California, please apply to the University of your state. I know about a million people are going to get on my case for saying that but its my opinion…you dont have to like it or agree with it.</p>
<p>The UC system accepts vastly more California residents than out of state residents. The competition for out of staters applying to say, Berkeley, is insane (think top 15 school competition). And remember, all schools, UCs included, accept more students than they can hold because they expect plenty of their accepted students to go elsewhere. People who apply to the UCs as safeties or with no intention of going don’t take away spots from other kids–they just lower the school’s yeild rate.</p>
<p>UCs are better than pretty much every state university with the exceptions of UMIch, UVA and possibly UIUC.</p>
<p>UNC-CH, UW-Madison, UT-Austin, UF…</p>
<p>I considered UC Berkeley last year. I looked at the size of the undergraduate student body, then looked at % out of state. Then I saw that in 1998, approximate 60% of the teaching staff at Berkeley are graduate students (meaning they are TAs). Then I found that the TAs went on strike in 1998 as well, causing major disruption to the school. </p>
<p>Then I looked at Stanford. Berkeley was completely forgotten the next day.</p>