I went to SF recently and now I am going back to tour parts of the state since I am looking into grad schools in CA. I am hoping to hit Sacramento, SF (again), LA, and San Diego with the possibility of visiting Fresno (I am not really sure what is in the area besides CSU Frenso). Any info on how many days to spend at each, places to go day and night, thoughts on cities, etc. would be of great help. Thanks
Heather

Well your best bet would be an open jaw ticket into Sacramento and out of San Diego -- or in the reverse order.

A good use of time would be 1 day/night in Sacramento, a couple of days in SF, drive through Fresno and visit the college enroute south to LA, 2 days in LA and 2 in San Diego.

Meant to add - Yosemite is not far from Fresno. but if this is primarily a college-visiting trip, you probably won't have time for the detour.

Plus if you end up going to school in CA you'll have plenty of opportunities to visit Yosemite.

janis' itinerery sounds good.

Sacramento is a nice city, but it's really not all that big so you can get a good feel for it in a day or so.

SF, LA and San Diego are all larger so you should have a couple days in each.

There really isn't much to Fresno so unless you want to spend a night there to break up the drive between SF and LA, you don't need to spend more than a few hours there checking out the school. Fresno is a decent sized city, but it doesn't have a lot of attractions and things to see.

Hi sidenote! I've lived in 3 of the cities you've listed, so I might be able to offer a few suggestions. In Sacramento, most of the younger crowd hang out in the midtown area (east of downtown Sac.). That's where most of the restaurants and bars are. The other touristy parts are in Old Sacramento by the Delta King river boat. Stop by there if you get a chance. As Janis said, Sacramento isn't that big, so 1-2 days would suffice. LA, on the other hand, is so spread out that it'll take a few days to cover. Besides, the usual touristy areas (Hollywood, beaches, Beverly Hills), you might want to go to the museums: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (La Brea area), Museum of Contemporary Art (downtown LA), etc. There's a lot of good restaurants in Santa Monica by the promenade, in downtown LA (although I wouldn't stay in downtown because there's really no nightlife there), and Old Pasadena. Lastly, San Diego... definitely visit Old Town, Gaslamp District, and La Jolla for the food and ambience. If you're looking for a younger crowd, Pacific Beach is the place. Just curious, are you by any chance visiting UCSD?

Anyways, hope this will help you out. Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks everyone I am going to go with a day in Sac and 2 in the rest and skip Fresno. I found out that Southwest is doing a special where you can fly between any two cities in CA for 40 dollars one way so I will fly from SF area to LA or vice versa depending one which part of the state I start in. I am working on finding a cheap flight from Michigan. Keep the advice coming Tcl: I am looking at SDSU.

Just curious - what is you field of study?

sidenote,
I thought you were considering UCSD - that's where I went to college.

I am looking to get a Masters or PhD in exercise physiology or sports psychology. [most likely the exercise phys though since there are more job opportunities]

That sounds like an interesting field of study - and choosing the one with the most job opportunities is usually a good thing

Go Aztecs!

Which campuses you visit should very much be dictated by your choice of major.

There are 11 University of California campuses and 23 California State University campuses. It's not necessary to visit all of them. These are just the state universities, then there are the private universities such as University of Southern California, Stanford, University of San Diego, Santa Clara University, etc. etc. Again, it is not necessary to visit all of the private universities.

I'd suggest that you look into the UC system: Berkeley, Davis (near Sacramento), Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara, and a few California State Universities of your choice. Of the private ones, the top are USC and Stanford. There are also other excellent private universities and colleges, such as the Claremont group, but they probably don't offer an advanced degree in your major.

Would you be able to narrow things down for us a bit? Give us some idea of which universities would offer graduate programs in your choice of major? We'll then be in a better position to fill in the blanks!

Oh I already know which schools I am applying to. I did some research and narrowed it down to 7-8 schools (3-4 are in CA). I am applying to them all, then visiting, and finally making a decision.

Don't miss visiting Venice Beach - that's a study in and of itself