A Matter of Degrees : Freeway, Family Close AAs, BAs, MAs, & Ph.Ds

North County residents are served by a wide range of colleges: there are two-year community colleges like Palomar and MiraCosta, public universities like UC San Diego and the new Cal State University San Marcos, and private colleges such as the University of San Diego.

Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, universities and colleges are assigned distinctive roles.

University of California campuses, including UCSD in La Jolla, emphasize research and graduate-level studies. They draw students from the top 12.5% of the state’s high school graduates, generally based on a combination of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores and grade point average.

The California State University campuses, including SDSU and CSUSM, offer a range of undergraduate and graduate degrees but have less stringent qualifications for enrollment.

Community colleges, including Palomar and MiraCosta, are generally open to anyone at least 18 years of age. The schools award associate of arts degrees as well as serve as steppingstones to four-year colleges.

The following is an overview of major colleges and universities serving area residents:

UC SAN DIEGO

9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla CA 92093 Phone: 534-3161 (UCSD Extension: 534-3400) UC San Diego is the southernmost of the nine campuses in the University of California system.

Occupying nearly 1,200 acres just west of Interstate 5 in La Jolla, UCSD is widely recognized for the high quality of its academic programs.

It is considered one of the top research universities in the nation. In 1986, the Ford Foundation ranked the school as one of the top six in the country based on the strength and balance of its academic programs, the proportion of graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees and the ethnic diversity of the student body. The other five were Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale.

The campus includes the School of Medicine, the UCSD Medical Center and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

UCSD’s academic plan was modeled after Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and is made up of five undergraduate colleges: Revelle, John Muir, Third, Earl Warren and Fifth.

The university operates on the quarter system and has about 18,000 students, 14,000 of them undergraduates.

Yearly fees for California residents are about $2,500, while out-of-state tuition and fees are slightly over $10,000.

In addition to its regular academic programs, the UCSD Extension program offers classes to the general public from several sites, including a newly-opened North County Center in Rancho Bernardo.

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY

5300 Campanile Drive San Diego CA 92115 Phone: 594-6871 (Extended studies: 594-5821) With an enrollment of 35,000, including about 7,000 graduate students, San Diego State University is one of the largest schools in the nation.

The university’s sprawling 300-acre campus is located on a hilltop known as Montezuma Mesa near Interstate 8 in East San Diego.

One of 20 campuses in the California State University system, San Diego State offers bachelor’s degrees in 76 areas, master’s in 56 and doctoral degrees in seven.

Fees for California residents are $926 a year based on two full-time semesters during a nine-month academic year, while non-residents pay an additional $205 per unit each semester.

The present campus, with its mission-style buildings, came into use in 1931 when the college moved from its 17-acre location at Park and El Cajon boulevards.

As enrollment at SDSU has swollen in recent years, students seeking degrees in some fields have increasingly found all available classes filled. That scheduling pressure is expected to increase in the fall as new cutbacks in state funding take effect.

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

SAN MARCOS

820 W. Los Vallecitos Blvd. San Marcos CA 92069 Phone: 471-4119 California State University, San Marcos, the first new public university in the state in 20 years, began its life last fall when 482 students arrived for classes at a temporary campus located in a business and industrial park.

Administrators hope that by 1993 the university will begin moving into its permanent site, a 305-acre campus that will be completed in stages over the next 20 years and will eventually serve over 25,000 students.

Currently, the school is accepting juniors, seniors and graduate students. In the fall of 1995, underclassmen will also be accepted. When the school is completed it will be North County’s only four-year public university.

Academic majors are planned in biology, business accounting, business management, history, liberal studies, mathematics, psychology and sociology.

Tuition and fees are set by university trustees who govern the state system and compare to those at other state universities, such as SDSU.

UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO

Alcalla Park San Diego CA 92110 Phone: 260-4506 (Continuing education: 260-4585) The University of San Diego is an independent Catholic institution where about 6,000 students may choose from over 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, including a School of Law.

The 180-acre USD campus, built in a distinctive Spanish Renaissance architectural style, is on a hilltop near the interchange of Interstates 5 and 8.

USD has international study programs in Oxford, England; Avignon, France, and Florence, Italy, among other locations.

Tuition is $10,370 for a year and room and board is about $5,000. More than 85% of freshmen live on campus.

Chartered in 1949, the University of San Diego has the College of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Law, Nursing, Graduate and Continuing Education. It is the home of the Hahn School of Nursing.

UNITED STATES

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

10455 Pomerado Road San Diego CA 92131 Phone: 271-4300 An independent, private university founded in 1952, United States International University brings together students from 98 different countries to study on its campuses in San Diego, London, Nairobi and Mexico City.

Bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs are offered at the main campus in Scripps Ranch east of Interstate 15. With about 1,800 students, of which approximately 40% are undergraduates, Scripps Ranch is the largest USIU campus.

Tuition and fees for three quarters are $9,105 for undergraduates and $6,180 for graduates, while campus room and board typically costs about $4,000.

The school, which filed for bankruptcy in December, 1990, is in the process of reorganizing its debts and has trimmed some programs to cut expenses.

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

4025 Camino del Rio South San Diego CA 92108 Phone: 563-7100 Founded in 1971, National University is a private school designed to be accessible to working adult students.

With an intensive, one-course-per-month format featuring evening classes, National University offers undergraduate degrees in 13 areas and graduate degrees in 22 fields, including law, as well as various teaching credentials, personal development courses and certificate programs.

The school has 44 learning centers throughout California and 11 in San Diego, including Miramar, Rancho Bernardo and Vista.

The enrollment in the county is about 3,500; 1,200 of those attend North County sites.

Tuition is $123 per quarter unit, or $615 per class for undergraduate classes, and $125 per quarter unit, or $625 per class for graduate study.

PALOMAR

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

1140 W. Mission Road San Marcos CA 92069 Phone: 744-1150 Palomar Community College serves a 2,500-square-mile area and operates under the philosophy that if the students can’t get to the college, the college will get to the students.

Over 25,000 students are enrolled at Palomar College, with as many taking night courses as day courses.

Classes cost $5 per unit, or about $100 for a two-semester school year.

Besides the main campus in San Marcos, Palomar has Education Centers in communities throughout the area and holds off-campus classes at 80 other locations--from the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park to the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

Founded in 1946, Palomar is the oldest institution of higher education in North County.

A 44,000-square-foot, three-story library is among the campus resources. Open to the public and the largest resource library in North County, it has more than 4,000 non-student card holders.

MIRACOSTA

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

One Barnard Drive Oceanside CA 92056 Phone: 757-2121 MiraCosta College serves the coastal communities of Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas and Del Mar.

MiraCosta first began conducting classes on the campus of Oceanside High School in 1934, but now has two locations, the 168-acre Oceanside campus, which opened in 1964, and the San Elijo campus, set on 42 acres below the bluffs in Cardiff-by-the-Sea (Encinitas), overlooking the San Elijo Lagoon reserve.

More than 6,000 students attend the Oceanside campus and another 3,000 students attend the San Elijo campus.

Educational programs include music, theater, vocational nursing and biotechnology.

MIRAMAR COLLEGE

10440 Black Mountain Road San Diego CA 92126 Phone: 536-7800 (Extended studies: 230-2277) Miramar College is part of the San Diego Community College District, which includes City College in downtown San Diego and Mesa College in Kearny Mesa.

Miramar has 7,000 students at its campus off Interstate 15, between Mira Mesa Boulevard and Miramar Road. Although the district was founded 75 years ago, the Miramar campus is about 20 years old. As with other junior colleges, credits are transferable to the state university and UC systems.

The regional training academy for the San Diego Police Department and the basic fire academy where local firefighters are trained are located on campus.

California residents pay $5 per unit, up to $50 per semester. Non-residents pay an additional $102 per unit.