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Engineering in California?

Hi,

I am looking to do a year abroad in California, but do not know much about the universities there. I am looking for a combination of a reputable university for engineering and also somewhere that will give me an active lifestyle.

Any suggestions welcome

Cheers

Joe

Reply 1

Apollo

There are some great schools in Cali for engineering, and most of them will provide the kind of social life you're looking for. Couple examples:

-UC Berkeley. One of the best engineering programs in America. Great Campus (Virtual tour: http://www.berkeley.edu/tour/ ). Very large school (33,000) and pretty competitive. Tons of professional sports teams around, close to lots of national parks, near vagas, napa valley and monteray.

-UC Davis. Pretty similar to Berkeley. Engineering isnt quite as strong, but still very good. ( tour: http://vtour.ucdavis.edu/ ). Also a large school (26,000). Location is a little more removed, but still close to big cities, beaches, skiing and hiking.

-UCLA. Very similar to Berkeley, but even larger (37,000). Great engineering/academics+ awesome athletics= great school. Tour: http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/tours.htm

UC-San Diego. Very intense academically, apparently you have to have a B in all engineering entry level courses to be accepeted into the major, but i have no idea how that would work for a year abroad. 25,000 students. Tons of stuff to do- near mexico, LA, San Diego etc. http://www.ucsd.edu/visit/index.html

-Stanford. Pretty much an ivy league school in everything but name. Excellent academically, although engineering isn't as much of a focus as in some of the other schools above (though its still excellent). 18,000 students. Great athletics. Tons of stuff to do- near the pacific ocean, sierra nevadas, san fran, la, napa valley.
http://www.stanford.edu/home/welcome/campus/

Basically almost every school in the UC system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California) can provide you the academics you want, and you'd be hard pressed to run out of things to do anywhere in Cali. Imo a lot of it would come down to the school size you're looking for, and the campus.

Hope this helps.

Reply 2

Mr_Joe

That is great, exactly what I was looking for, you're a star!

Reply 3

forpolarbears

Don't forget Cal tech!

Apollo did a very good job--if you have a car and tons of time on your hands! I think my friends at Davis made it to San Francisco maybe once? Then again, my roommate's boyfriend goes to Davis and seemed to live at Berkeley (AHHH). lol

Moral of story: if you want to go to Monterrey, Napa, etc, you need a car! And if you don't have one, BART is your friend, but only for in San Francisco. Though, I tend to go to SF at least once a week.

Reply 4

Nomd

You may want to add
USC (University of Southern California) - School is big and competitive, but has a excellent reputation for engineering. One issue being it is in a not so nice part of LA, the campus it self is safe, but i would not walk off the campus at night.

CalTech - as Megx said is some of the best Physics and Engineering schools in the country, rivals MIT. But is very small and selective institution. It is in Pomona, nice area.

CalPoly - This is a CSU campus, so the reputation is not as strong as the others listed, but still has a very good program. And it is in San Luis Obispo, on the central coast, I think this is one of the best parts of the state to live. it is about equidistant form LA and SF.

If I had to pick on the strength of there reputation I would order them.
CalTech, Stanford, UC Berkley, USC, UCLA, UCSD, UC Davis, CalPoly.

Reply 5

devil09

There's also Harvey Mudd. It's not a university, but it does benefit from the Claremont consortium. I'm not sure if it accepts exchange students.

www.hmc.edu

Reply 6

GnMvP

OMG!! Berkeley looks amazing!!
How far is from San Francisco?

Reply 7

forpolarbears

GnMvP

OMG!! Berkeley looks amazing!!
How far is from San Francisco?

The subway runs about every 20 minutes and it takes about 15 to get from the berkeley station to downtown San Francisco (businesses: Montgomery or Embarcadero, shops: Powell)

Or you can drive, in which case it it is about 20 minutes. Except that University Avenue can be a pain a lot of the time, and so can the Bay Bridge.

Google says 30 though from west campus to Union Square.

Reply 8

GnMvP

megx

Nice..

Berkeley seems to be a great place to be a student!! :smile:

Unfortunately it costs lots more to be a student there too.. :frown:

Reply 9

forpolarbears

Yeah, the cost of living in the Bay Area is pretty high, especially with the US's higher tuition fees.

I am not sure if this applies to international students as well (it doesn't say you can't be one), but through this program, if you work for the school/represent it, you get free tuition for two years!

If you have any questions about Berkeley or US education, feel free to ask here/by PM. :smile:

Reply 10

GnMvP

megx

Actually i was thinking of Berkeley for the year abroad! :rolleyes:

This is because i will be in Loughborough for the next 3 years.. :cool:

Sorry for not defining it from the beginning.. :frown:

Although i like this kind of jobs... :biggrin:

Reply 11

forpolarbears

GnMvP

Actually i was thinking of Berkeley for the year abroad! :rolleyes:

This is because i will be in Loughborough for the next 3 years.. :cool:

Sorry for not defining it from the beginning.. :frown:

Although i like this kind of jobs... :biggrin:

Are you studying engineering (I know Loughborough is good for that, sorry to generalize)? If so, apparently Berkeley doesn't accept engineering exchange students. One of my friends goes to Lancaster and he's only applying for UCLA/UCSD for engineering since Berkeley won't let him.

Reply 12

GnMvP

megx

I'll be studying E&EEngineering for 3 years starting sept 08.. :cool:

Loughborough is very good for engineering but as i can se it doesn't exchanges students neither with UCLA nor UCSD..(http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/admissions/ects/outoging/programmes/index.htm)
So now i am thinking of Toronto Uni..(even if i want to study in calif so badly :frown: