Every year many high school students must choose among top-tier California schools such as UC Berkeley, USC and UCLA.
To make the right decision students take into account a variety of factors, from class size, tuition and housing to academic ranking.
For Austin Ashcraft, a first-year philosophy student at Berkeley, the main factor in his decision last year was academic reputation.
“I chose Cal because of the academic reputation that the school has. I did not apply to UCLA because I didn’t want to go into any of the sciences,” he said. “I didn’t know UCLA’s humanities were so highly ranked, and I wish I had found that out before I decided what schools to apply to.”
Vu Tran, the director of undergraduate admissions and relations with schools at UCLA, said the university has many features that make it an attractive choice for prospective students.
“Collectively, I would say academic prestige and reputation set us apart,” he said.
“We also have a very diverse student body. We offer lots of choices for students: extracurriculars, research, and we have a great intercollegiate athletic program that has won 100 NCAA titles.”
Another draw for many students is the amount of personal attention and the quality of interaction with faculty and other students. Justin Lanning, a senior at St. Augustine High School in San Diego, said small class size is an advantage that private schools like USC offer.
“If you’re going to be paying a lot of money to go to college, then you should get more than hearing people talk. Learning goes two ways: Students have to develop ideas and then have the opportunities to share them with other people,” he said.
Ashcraft also said he saw USC’s smaller student population and class size as an advantage.
“I applied to USC, and I really liked it because it is a small school. I believe this affords it an advantage because, at big schools like UCLA and Berkeley, you aren’t pushed as hard to excel in your classes,” he said.
Tran said UCLA is trying to reach out to prospective students by providing lots of personal attention.
“We don’t have one big reception day like Cal Day at Berkeley. Rather, we have smaller receptions like College Honors and Welcome Days. At each session there are only approximately 300 students,” he said.
Another important aspect that prospective students have to consider is cost. Though classes at USC may be smaller than at a UC, a four-year degree at most private universities costs approximately twice as much as a degree from Berkeley or UCLA.
“Price was the reason I chose Cal over USC. … Cal is only about half of that, and it played a huge role in my decision,” Ashcraft said.
Lanning agreed that the UCs offer a financial advantage.
“I don’t want to come out of college with $200,000 in loans,” he said.
Kirk Brennan, the assistant dean of Undergraduate Admissions at USC, said that, while he feels cost is certainly a big issue, it should not be the primary factor in a student’s decision to attend.
“A student could be happier at a more expensive school than a cheaper one,” he said. “The first thing we try to do in regards to cost is try to help students understand how financial aid works, and how aid from a private institution might help even more than aid from a public institution.”
Though Berkeley has a larger student population than USC, Ashcraft said he feels this larger environment contributes to the spirit on campus he enjoys so much.
“Cal has all the crazy people. It’s just fun and entertaining and very vibrant. I feel that though UCLA definitely has a good social scene, Cal seemed much more lively and engaged when I took the campus tour last year,” he said.
Brennan said that a strong sense of community was one of USC’s advantages as well.
“I’m not familiar with the spirit at UCLA, but the spirit here (at USC) is very strong. I know the concept of the Trojan family is very real and very strong. It’s fun to be a part of,” he said.
Lanning, however, said he does not want an overwhelming campus atmosphere to distract him from his studies.
“(At Cal), you do hear in the news a lot of big protesting events, and I would not want that to get in the way of my schooling,” he said.
Lanning said he was turned off by what perceived as USC’s focus on networking and connections instead of schooling.
“Apparently everyone who comes out of USC does a lot of bragging … but once you go to school, it’s supposed to be about the experience you have while you’re in college. It’s not about having a name to brag about when you get out,” he said.
Location can also greatly impact the atmosphere of a university and sway a prospective student’s decision. Location is one of the main reasons Ashcraft said he was so attracted to Berkeley.
“It has the small city feel in Berkeley coupled with big city feel in San Francisco coupled with Strawberry Canyon, which has the nature theme going. I like how there are many environments coupled into one,” he said.
UCLA enjoys a very advantageous location, Tran said.
“We are a very attractive and safe campus with a very safe surrounding area,” he said.
Though Berkeley and UCLA are similar in many aspects, Tran mentioned that he feels the availability of housing is one important difference between them.
“We guarantee housing for three years, compared to just one year for Berkeley,” he said.
Housing is an issue at USC as well.
Fewer than 500 juniors and seniors will be awarded on-campus housing, according to reports from the Daily Trojan, USC’s student newspaper,
Ashcraft said housing was an important factor in his decision, but that students should take into account all university housing options, both on and off campus.
“I once heard a story about how decades ago at Cal there was not enough housing for the freshmen, so some of them had to camp out in Strawberry Canyon. This may only be a rumor, but I know that housing can be hard to get here,” he said. “This was a factor in my decision, but I felt that the other factors outweighed it. I like living on campus, but I’m sure I will be able to adjust to living in an apartment if I have to.”
Brennan said that even though he believes in the quality of his own university, students should get all the information possible and make a decision that is best for them.
“I just hope that students are happy wherever they choose to enroll. We aren’t disappointed if they choose to enroll at other schools,” he said.