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I visited all the UC campuses when I was your age and had subsequent visits to each since none of my friends went out of state. The general advice I can give is make sure you visit all the campuses, I would never had went to the east coast if it weren't for my last-minute campus visit.
Here's my impressions:
* Harvey Mudd has strong math/science tradition. The student body is geeky, small, but very approachable and has strong identity. Administration is relaxed towards how to government the student. No sports tradition what-so-ever, except E-sports.
* USC has very strong sports tradition, but a surprising number of undergraduates don't actively participate with it. The student body gives off rich snub vibes to me and the surrounding areas outside of campus is quite sketchy (could be my rivalry speaking).
* UCLA has a nice campus, in the good part of LA. The school is big enough that your college and dorm selection will dictate quite a bit of your experience there. Very urban and hipster.
* UCR is dead. It's a sad school. On the bright side, it is rather close to paintball parks.
* UCSB has a beautiful campus, but weaker of the UCs academically. Party and beach oriented.
* UCSD has a beautiful campus and ridiculusly close to the beach. Strong academics especially for pre-meds. All my friends who went there thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
* Cal still lives in the 60s. Student housing smell like cannabis everywhere. Academics is hardcore.
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lolol I had similar thoughts, except for on UCSD.
If I decide to do macroecon, UCSB's program is actually the strongest in the state (well, debatably Stanford) 
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On April 10 2011 18:56 coolcrimefighter wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2011 15:50 FragKrag wrote:
I have to reiterate that partying at UCSB is completely done on choice. There is really not that much pressure to party every friday/saturday at UCSB. Sure, your roommate will probably be stoked to party in Isla Vista, but just to get off the campus of UCSB from the more popular dorms (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, San Nic) will take 10-15 minutes, not even counting the time to find a house hosting a party.
When I come back at like 1-3AM from Isla Vista there are always people in the Anacapa lounge just playing video games, having fun, etc. You really don't need to party to have fun at UCSB because not only does UCSB have partying, it also has the convenient location that is near both the beach and the mountains. Excursion club at UCSB for example hosts many trips on weekends (and weekdays) to hiking in the nearby mountains or to nearby lakes.
Downtown SB and State street are also very fun to hang around.
That said, if you come to UCSB, you should definitely at least check out the partying scene. It's very interesting, (and even our chancellor comes down during Halloween).
However, if your dorm is anything like mine, then there will be a considerable amount of drug use. My hall reeks of cannabis just about every weekend, and just about every quarter me and some friends like to shroom on the beach and just relax. At the same time, just about all of us are very tolerant of people who have no desire to try anything (though we will ask if you want to join us!). am I crazy for considering ucr over ucsb?
At the risk of sounding inflammatory, yes. UCSB is far better than UCR in all respects (imo), and since you're paying about the same (unless you commute to UCR), it would be a waste of money to go to UCR unless you got a huge amount of financial aid from them, or just love something about the school that I can't see.
As far as UCSB academics goes, it's not as strong as UCLA or Cal, but depending on the program, UCSB can be better/worse than UCSD/UCD, and is in general better than UCI, UCR, UCSC, UCM.
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On April 11 2011 02:33 FragKrag wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2011 18:56 coolcrimefighter wrote:On April 10 2011 15:50 FragKrag wrote:
I have to reiterate that partying at UCSB is completely done on choice. There is really not that much pressure to party every friday/saturday at UCSB. Sure, your roommate will probably be stoked to party in Isla Vista, but just to get off the campus of UCSB from the more popular dorms (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, San Nic) will take 10-15 minutes, not even counting the time to find a house hosting a party.
When I come back at like 1-3AM from Isla Vista there are always people in the Anacapa lounge just playing video games, having fun, etc. You really don't need to party to have fun at UCSB because not only does UCSB have partying, it also has the convenient location that is near both the beach and the mountains. Excursion club at UCSB for example hosts many trips on weekends (and weekdays) to hiking in the nearby mountains or to nearby lakes.
Downtown SB and State street are also very fun to hang around.
That said, if you come to UCSB, you should definitely at least check out the partying scene. It's very interesting, (and even our chancellor comes down during Halloween).
However, if your dorm is anything like mine, then there will be a considerable amount of drug use. My hall reeks of cannabis just about every weekend, and just about every quarter me and some friends like to shroom on the beach and just relax. At the same time, just about all of us are very tolerant of people who have no desire to try anything (though we will ask if you want to join us!). am I crazy for considering ucr over ucsb? At the risk of sounding inflammatory, yes. UCSB is far better than UCR in all respects (imo), and since you're paying about the same (unless you commute to UCR), it would be a waste of money to go to UCR unless you got a huge amount of financial aid from them, or just love something about the school that I can't see. As far as UCSB academics goes, it's not as strong as UCLA or Cal, but depending on the program, UCSB can be better/worse than UCSD/UCD, and is in general better than UCI, UCR, UCSC, UCM.
And in terms of individual programs, the two strongest at SB are Physics and Macroecon. (Physics being really strong, Macroecon being better than any other UC, probably a bit worse than Stanford)
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But yeah, fairly awesome at UCSB, from what I've seen.
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You haven't done any partying before, you definitely should go to UCSB. It's something that you need to experience, it's college dude. If you go to Harvey Mudd and don't experience any drugs/sex/alcohol, then you never will. GET IT DONE
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On April 11 2011 13:38 FortyOzs wrote:
You haven't done any partying before, you definitely should go to UCSB. It's something that you need to experience, it's college dude. If you go to Harvey Mudd and don't experience any drugs/sex/alcohol, then you never will. GET IT DONE
Well, I dont' want to go tehre.
Although admittedly Harvey Mudd has a LOT of drinking.
A severe deficit of the other two >.>
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On April 11 2011 13:46 Froadac wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2011 13:38 FortyOzs wrote:
You haven't done any partying before, you definitely should go to UCSB. It's something that you need to experience, it's college dude. If you go to Harvey Mudd and don't experience any drugs/sex/alcohol, then you never will. GET IT DONE Well, I dont' want to go tehre. Although admittedly Harvey Mudd has a LOT of drinking. A severe deficit of the other two >.>
You just have to experience it dude, and I'm 100% sure you can find weed at Harvey Mudd, So if you really want to go there, you're just sacrificing getting laid. I wouldn't pick a college for that reason only, so go with Harvey Mudd but make an effort to have fun.
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On April 11 2011 13:52 FortyOzs wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2011 13:46 Froadac wrote:On April 11 2011 13:38 FortyOzs wrote:
You haven't done any partying before, you definitely should go to UCSB. It's something that you need to experience, it's college dude. If you go to Harvey Mudd and don't experience any drugs/sex/alcohol, then you never will. GET IT DONE Well, I dont' want to go tehre. Although admittedly Harvey Mudd has a LOT of drinking. A severe deficit of the other two >.> You just have to experience it dude, and I'm 100% sure you can find weed at Harvey Mudd, So if you really want to go there, you're just sacrificing getting laid. I wouldn't pick a college for that reason only, so go with Harvey Mudd but make an effort to have fun.
haha.
I'm not set enough on engineering to go there. Just was pointing out that there is a ton of drinking at HMC.
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On April 11 2011 13:52 FortyOzs wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2011 13:46 Froadac wrote:On April 11 2011 13:38 FortyOzs wrote:
You haven't done any partying before, you definitely should go to UCSB. It's something that you need to experience, it's college dude. If you go to Harvey Mudd and don't experience any drugs/sex/alcohol, then you never will. GET IT DONE Well, I dont' want to go tehre. Although admittedly Harvey Mudd has a LOT of drinking. A severe deficit of the other two >.> You just have to experience it dude, and I'm 100% sure you can find weed at Harvey Mudd, So if you really want to go there, you're just sacrificing getting laid. I wouldn't pick a college for that reason only, so go with Harvey Mudd but make an effort to have fun.
err what... a lot of the schools he listed have AT LEAST 2/3 of drugs/sex/alcohol
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Lol, yeah. not like any of those are harvard >.>
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Just another note, UCSB has been slowly climbing up the ranks academically over the past few years. Besides Physics and Econ mentioned above, we are also very good in Engineering and Communications (apparently...lol?). Not to mention our chancellor is super awesome (believe me, I took his class). Not going to lie, we are no Cal or UCLA, but we do rank mid-topish among the UCs academically.
I am not in macroecon, so I can't tell you much about it. However, the econ departmentis like 70%+ females if that means anything.
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On April 11 2011 15:21 chennis wrote:
Just another note, UCSB has been slowly climbing up the ranks academically over the past few years. Besides Physics and Econ mentioned above, we are also very good in Engineering and Communications (apparently...lol?). Not to mention our chancellor is super awesome (believe me, I took his class). Not going to lie, we are no Cal or UCLA, but we do rank mid-topish among the UCs academically.
I am not in macroecon, so I can't tell you much about it. However, the econ departmentis like 70%+ females if that means anything.
Haha. They have that nobel prize winner from the nordic region (haha, too lazy to look it up) who is supposedly awesome, and the chancellor isn't like the one from UCSD.
In the intro video for UCSD
Monotone: UCSD is a high quality institution of learning.
At least your chancellor gets vaguely involved.
I'm not even sure if I can get into engineering there >.> Might have to apply as a freshman. How reasonable is that?
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Oh ouch..ermm... that can be difficult. Its definitely doable, but you need to really apply yourself. It depends more on if you really like the materials though, since i find that people come and go for the first 2 years in the engineering lower-divisions anyways. I have a couple of friends that successfully transferred in, but as far as I can tell they worked pretty hard. Either way, even if you stick with macroecon, I am sure you'll have an awesome time here.
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On April 11 2011 15:54 chennis wrote:
Oh ouch..ermm... that can be difficult. Its definitely doable, but you need to really apply yourself. It depends more on if you really like the materials though, since i find that people come and go for the first 2 years in the engineering lower-divisions anyways. I have a couple of friends that successfully transferred in, but as far as I can tell they worked pretty hard. Either way, even if you stick with macroecon, I am sure you'll have an awesome time here.
Yeah. I'm very willing to work my ass off >.>
But it's feasible I/d get into engineering: just not sure.
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comparing strength of academics is sooooooo useless.
unless it's top in that field (like top 3) then the opportunities are usually the same at every university.
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On April 12 2011 01:34 kainzero wrote:
comparing strength of academics is sooooooo useless.
unless it's top in that field (like top 3) then the opportunities are usually the same at every university.
I wouldn't say that.
It would be fair to say opportunities at top 20 schools are similar, but we shouldn't go comparing UCSD to San Diego State. That's just stupid.
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EPT
