Should I go to College in California? (I'm from Connecticut) (Los Angeles: debt, travel)

[Amacfa]

Well, I am going to be applying to colleges in a few weeks. Most of my colleges are around Connecticut (NY,MA,NJ,PA,RI).
But there is only one place I would ever sacrifice traveling distance, and that is California, for many reasons:

Expo's: E3, Blizzcon, CES
The future company I wish to work for is located in Irvine.
Weather

and a lot of other little reasons

That said, I'm looking to attend college around the Irvine area. Any comments about this area? The city itself and sorround areas?

[sav858]

Irvine is ranked as one of the best places to live in the country. Low crime, good schools, clean, good jobs, etc.... It's a nice area but very bland and suburban for my tastes, but if you don't mind that then it's a great place to live. Just lots of suburban development and traffic overall. The surrounding area is pretty nice and similar too.

[missionhome]

Irvine is a nice area, but very suburban. It isn't really a super exciting area for college students, but the beach communities are near by.

In Irvine:
University of California Irvine
Concordia University (Christian)

Nearby:
California State University: Fullerton or Long Beach campuses

A little farther out (1-1.5 hours):
Occidental College
University of California Los Angeles
University of Southern California

[AKgirlinCA]

It's also very expensive.

[ValleyBoy85]

Questions you should highly consider and ask yourself before choosing an university:

1) Do/does the perspective school(s) offer my major of choice?

2) What kind of setting am I looking for? (urban/suburban, beach community, 4 seasons, lifestyle, etc.)

3) Do I want a party school? (Great Greek Life- Fraternities/Sororities)

4) How much would I have to or am willing to pay to attend? (Out-state tuition, renting/owning/dorming, cost of living expenses)

5) Sports/athletics (what sports does the school offer, is there a football team?)

6) Alumni relations and school spirit?

6) What kind of transportation is there available?

7) What kind of employment opportunities are there available/offered?

8) Alumni relations/school spirit?

[rickca]

CSU Fullteron, Long Beach and UC Irvine are kind of bland very large schools that I think lack the traditional college feel (I looked at all of them when considering colleges to attend), the problem with California having so many state run schools is that many of them seem to lack that real college atmosphere, San Diego State and UCLA would be two So Cal public schools that are more like traditional colleges. Anyways you may want to come check the schools out for yourself first but I just know that all the first three I mentioned all freqently are pegged with the term "commuter campus"

[Adriatica]

Originally Posted by Amacfa

Well, I am going to be applying to colleges in a few weeks. Most of my colleges are around Connecticut (NY,MA,NJ,PA,RI).
But there is only one place I would ever sacrifice traveling distance, and that is California, for many reasons:

Expo's: E3, Blizzcon, CES
The future company I wish to work for is located in Irvine.
Weather

and a lot of other little reasons

That said, I'm looking to attend college around the Irvine area. Any comments about this area? The city itself and sorround areas?

If your future plan is to live in CA (with a high COL), I'd go to whichever college is the best value (not necessarily the cheapest, but the best educations for the bucks) and, in doing so, make sure to acquire as little debt as possible.

[ytlh]

My sense is that if you go to school in Irvine, you will mostly experience campus life and not much town life. There is not much community life in the town (no downtown), and it is hard to access it as an "outsider". I worked at UC Irvine for about two and a half years and lived walking distance to campus. I really didn't meet almost anyone outside of the campus community.

In any case, I would try to visit any colleges that you are considering if you possibly can. The campus culture will vary a lot from place to place and this will probably have the biggest impact on your experience. While local ties can be helpful in landing a job at a particular company sometimes they are not, and there are lots of other ways to approach the job search (summer internship, for example). Also a LOT of people change their mind drastically about their future career plans while in college.

[Charles]

You can make your decision easy. Major in engineering and you won't have to worry about things like weather, clubs, dating, chicks, parties, sports, fun, TV, movies, etc.

You'll spend a lot of time in places like this:

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