Cal States vs UC's

[retrofusion720]

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Hi everyone,

I'm basically new here and I'm just wondering if you guys can help me out.

I'm thinking of going to Cal State Long Beach for my undergrads to take my pre med. I'm already took a community college route, but due to financial reasons and most importantly, personal reasons, I have to stay close to home and work.

Just wondering, will I regret of going to Cal States instead of a UC's? How much prestige does it matter in California school?

Thanks.

 

[PremedGunner]

Hi everyone,

I'm basically new here and I'm just wondering if you guys can help me out.

I'm thinking of going to Cal State Long Beach for my undergrads to take my pre med. I'm already took a community college route, but due to financial reasons and most importantly, personal reasons, I have to stay close to home and work.

Just wondering, will I regret of going to Cal States instead of a UC's? How much prestige does it matter in California school?

Thanks.

UC! although it wont matter for m school

 

[rafflecopter]

Go to whatever school you think you'd like more. Happier you=more likely to do well in classes which is way more important than prestige. Obviously the UCs carry much more prestige than the cal states, but I went to a cal state and still interviewed at some nice schools so clearly prestige doesn't mean much.

 

[Slack3r]

Hi everyone,

I'm basically new here and I'm just wondering if you guys can help me out.

I'm thinking of going to Cal State Long Beach for my undergrads to take my pre med. I'm already took a community college route, but due to financial reasons and most importantly, personal reasons, I have to stay close to home and work.

Just wondering, will I regret of going to Cal States instead of a UC's? How much prestige does it matter in California school?

Thanks.

Where do you live? CSU:LB is right in the middle of UCLA and UC:Irvine (40 min commute to each).

I'd recommend the UC's, but if you cannot afford the commute (or don't wanna drive 40 mins W/O TRAFFIC to school) then you don't have much of a choice do you?

 

[SilentSoldier]

Well with the UCs being giant research institutions and all of the SoCal ones having medical schools, they provide more opportunities for research and involvement within their medical centers. However, like it has been mentioned above, you should go where you'll feel more comfortable and its not like there aren't any opportunities at the Cal State level. As long as you do well, it won't matter where you went.

 

[romanjetfighter]

going to cal state long beach now, starting my final year (been here 4 years)
many of my friends here do research at one of the UCI's lab for the same reasons people in this thread have mentioned. UCI and other UCs tend to be "research powerhouses." the labs there are huge, HUGE and have lots and lots of research assistants, usually grad students. as an undergrad, you will not get your name on whatever publications your lab puts out. the research at UCI, though, is more broad and so the topic may be interesting to you.

going to csulb lets you get published, even if the labs do not publish that often (some labs publish something like once every 3-4 years, pathetically, after 3-4 years of research) because the labs are smaller, they rely more heavily on ugrads, and some of them rely on bridge funding vs. NIH grants. but there are 1-2 labs (somewhat notorious/famous on campus) that pull in LOADS of funding from NIH and stuff (especially one professor she is insanely bright and insanely hard for lectures). these two labs publish very often (like 1-2 a year, not highest but you will get your name as the author and if you're here for 1-2 years, that's plenty of pubs for you).

these are biological labs i'm talking about. chemistry labs are different at csu, some of them are linked to biotech companies in irvine (the PI owns a biotech company) if you're looking for internships.

csu's tuition is also way less than UCs, but it's rising.


not saying which one is better, they are a little different, but just saying "UCs have better research" is true but a bit misleading

btw. check csulb's acceptance rate on us news

o.o

i'm sort of rambling cuz im writing this in class but... really look at what YOU want. their grading systems are much different, setting is somewhat different (csulb is urbany/oceanic/library has panaromic view of the ocean) irvine is super surburban (everything's slightly manufactured feel/very upscale). P.s. CSULB is not like other CSUs. it's HUGE student population size wise....

anyways, pick your schoolbased on something other than research


-undergrad researcher at CSULB


P.S. csu's don't get out +'s or -'s. an A is 4.0, b is 3.0
therefore, 90% or however in the class = 4.0, 88% is 3.0. also semester system vs. quarter system

 

[rHinO1]

Getting your name on a pub as an undergrad will be hard no matter where you go. However, the UCs provide far more opportunities than CSUs. In addition to pubs, there are opportunities readily available to present projects, do summer research programs, make posters, and do internships. Literally every professor at a UC is doing research, the CSUs cannot come close to what is being done at a UC... and to say anything otherwise is misleading.

As an undergrad at a UC, I completed a formal research program, presented my work at a symposium, and was listed as a third author on a publication (right after post-doc coauthors). Sure, at a UC you have tons of post-docs and graduate students whose training comes first, but ultimately you will learn more being surrounded by and supervised by people with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Most research projects aren't fruitful, but at least at a UC there is tons of funding to move on to the next project when the first one fails.

 

[bajastapler]

As a UC student I often wish I had gone to a CSU.

Briefly put: The level of education is about the same. My upper division bio classes still have at least 300+ students (not that easy to get that stellar letter of rec.)

although - in theory - the UCs offer more research opportunities, a publication isn't gonna be what makes or breaks your application (IMO). The fact that you understand the application of science is what I think is more important (IMO). Finally, I think it's more important to have a holistic application & both offer that opportunity.

Strongest Pro @ a CSU: "easier" to stand out amongst the competition
Strongest Pro @ a UC: "more" potential opportunities to get involved with research.

I did alright at the UC and have a pretty solid resume working for myself, but I if I could do it all again I'd picked either a private or a CSU.

*not try to start a long drawn out debate. just throwing in my two cents 🙂

gl!