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A lot of people here seem to have been accepted to both. I'll admit that UCSD was orignally a "safety school" for me. But after visiting it last weekend, it has jumped ahead of UCLA and JHU to be my first choice. I haven't made up my mind yet. But it seems to me that UCSD has a better environment than UCLA, more relaxed, more scenic, smaller, newer facilities, the ocean, and a rising rep in the biological sciences.

So, assuming I'm going to be some kind of biology major, why should I pick UCLA instead?

By Nocalguy (Nocalguy) on Wednesday, April 09, 2003 - 03:54 pm: Edit

If you're going into bioengineering, you should pick UCSD. In terms of overall rep, it's a solid #3 UC behind UCLA and Berkeley.

By Mzinn (Mzinn) on Thursday, April 10, 2003 - 07:18 pm: Edit

i would pick UCLA because it's a great school all around and LA is just awesome. could you elaborate a little more on why UCSD has jumped to the top of your list?

By Brd (Brd) on Thursday, April 10, 2003 - 07:34 pm: Edit

I wouldn't say UCSD's rep in bio-sciences is rising, I would say it is firmly established. The Salk Institute is there, as is the Scripps institute. The National Science Foundation just backed a truckload of grant money up to the front door of the bio-phyiscs department. (UCSD has one of the oldest bio-physics depts. btw). So UCSD would definitely be a reasonable choice if you are interested in bio-science. On the other hand, if you are really interested in bio-sciences and want to go to grad school, then you might consider going somewhere else for undergrad and then applying to UCSD for grad school.

I don't think "smaller" is an accurate reason though; UCSD has the largest of all UC campuses I believe. Also, I doubt UCSD's facilities are much newer if at all; UCLA has essentially continuous construction of new facilities.

Either one would be a good choice, I'd say it comes down to where you'd rather live.

By Chenguo (Chenguo) on Thursday, April 10, 2003 - 08:09 pm: Edit

If you're sure you're going into biology, UCSD is probably a better choice, since it has a great reputation for that subject. (US News ranks its biomedical engineering dept. as #3 in the nation, way ahead of UCLA.) I know someone who chose UCSD's EE dept. (which ranks #16) over Berkeley's (which ranks #4) simply because UCSD is smaller and has a better environment.

By Divingin (Divingin) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 03:21 am: Edit

yea for UCSD ... awesome in terms of research- there are guys from MIT (profs) who have transferred out to work in the ucsd area because of the scripps oceanography institute. plus the campus is amazing, very humane, like they built a univ in the middle of san diego zoo.i recc it highly.