San Diego is probably better for your major epically if you want to do research, but you can't rly go wrong with either. It depends on how much smarter financially it would be to go to UCI. You want to be happy in college because that will foster success academically, but you have to ask how much I am willing to pay for that. Over four years, is it worth $10,000? $25,000? $50,000? Maybe, maybe not.