This was the last one. We just got back from a tour of UCI today - boy, the campus has grown (and the saplings have become big trees ) since I went there. S18 really liked it - and was really leaning towards it - then the Berkeley acceptance came in, and now the choice is going to be tough.

Berkeley - well - it's Berkeley - huge name, lots of brilliantly eccentric peers for my S. BUT - they accepted him for SPRING semester - some kind of weird delayed admission because the campus is so full. They have a program, though, where he can come to Berkeley in the fall, take classes off-campus for a semester that fulfill some of his requirements, and MAYBE get on-campus housing if there is enough available (not guaranteed). In most other ways he's just like a regular student - and then, spring semester, he IS a regular semester. Hmmmm....do you think they just expect so many drop-outs in the first semester???

UCI, on the other hand, has none of those hassles - AND is conveniently a 90 minute drive from home - but campus life is much less vibrant, still a commuter school in lots of ways. (Architecture is awesome, though - has 4 times as many buildings as when I was there, all wildly modern).

So I think there really is no "wrong" decision here. Now - to visit Berkeley.

Ellie