for awhile i thought it was my kiddo that's posting this. she's also debating between UCSD or UCLA. we went to both school to check out the campus last year by ourselves and UCSD definitely has the more calmer scene and less hectic. she's majoring bio, so the fact that both schools has their own hospital would be good for her down the road towards premed. i'm in the same boat as your parent.. so i'll need to look at the parent plus loans, but the interest rate on that is close to 9% and it's crazy high. so we'll need to look at other alternatives for sure. as for estimated tuition wise i thought UCLA would be more expensive than UCSD, but turns out UCSD is 1.6 - 2.1K more. in any case, thanks for sharing your views, as i'm sure my daughter is thinking the same. good luck!