Which University to choose?

[Knarik]

I need help. Which of these three should I choose?

1. UC Berkeley
2. UCLA
3. USC

[ms.petra]

pick the one that has the best program for your major

[Félix]

Berkeley will give you the away from home experience, K.

[Jonathan]

It really depends what your goals and interests are, Knarik. As Ms. Petra said, if you know what your major is going to be (or what it is likely to be), you should look into the reputation of the department for that field at each of these universities. And if you intend to go to graduate school at some point (or are you going to grad school now?), it's very important to carry that research one step further, and look at the individual professors in the department: What are their fields of specialization? Do they publish widely? Are they cited by other scholars? Do they have known biases, likes, or dislikes in their approach? Could you work with this person as a grad student? Do your interests overlap?

Beyond all this, congratulations on being in a position to make a choice like this. These are all very good schools.

[Jim]

Not much else to add except congratulations also.

[Knarik]

Thank you all! The major is political science, and I transfer to a junior year. I am interested in how people outside CA perceive these three universities, and which one is considered the best. UCLA and USC are really close to my house.
(and I count 1 vote for Berkeley from Larry :)

[RandomAnthony]

Wow. You guys thought WAY more about this than me.

I went to...let me count...three different universities and a junior college for undergrad. I started out at University of Illinois at Chicago (not University of Chicago, where really smart people go) because my sister went there and I wasn't sure where to go or even if I wanted to go to college. I lasted two months. A while later I went to Northeastern Illinois University, a working class commuter school in Chicago. Then I went one semester to Illinois State, way out in the middle of the cornfields in Normal, Illinois. Then I came back to Chicago and finished at Northeastern. I worked close to full time or more all that time except for the ISU semester. So...um...what other people said, but I also think, if you're going to live there, walk around the campus, get a sense of what you want, where you feel comfortable, etc. Don't get guilted into going to a school with a great major or reputation if you don't feel comfortable there at all. Sit in on a couple classes if possible. You're going to be there, every day, and "fit" is important. Honestly, in a lot of fields (I don't know enough about political science to say) the university's reputation isn't going to make much of a difference in the real world. The entity wants to hire you and recognizes there are a lot of great schools and a lot of great reasons why people would go to them as well as the idea that a lot of idiots go to great school and a diploma from one of them doesn't mean you're necessarily hiring material.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

RandomAnthony wrote: "Wow. You guys thought WAY more about this than me.

I went to...let me count...three different universities and a junior college for undergrad. I started out at University of Illinois at Chicago ..."

Holy cow, you went to a lot of colleges. You are VERY well educated. I see that you slighted NIU and DePaul...