dCrumpets

Definitely go to Oxford over UCSD. There’s a world of difference in difficulty to get into, and like the other person says, SD isn’t the biggest tech scene unless biotech is your focus. UC schools are also huge and impersonal, part of what lets them offer decently cheap tuition to in-state students; but if you’re not in-state, I don’t think you’re getting the best value for your money. My answer might change if the alternative were Berkeley.

Like where?! The rest of the Bay Area (except maybe Oakland and Berkeley) strikes me as a cookie-cutter, suburban hell-scape. I've visited Palo Alto, San Matteo, Pleasanton, Fremont, and San Jose in the course of my time in the East Bay, and I couldn't help but ask myself why the heck anyone would live there. I don't see anything unique in those places--why not live in a suburb anywhere else, at 1/8th of the cost?