About some UC schools

All UC schools are heavily Asian-American, usually first or second generational, so be aware of that. I'll mark the ones that don't fit this stereotype with a *
Berkeley is top tier in the country for engineering, and esp ChemE. The location is prime, the campus is known to be socially active.
The next tier needs a bit of explaining. (next 3 are beach schools)
UCSD has a pretty small ChemE faculty, at least from why all my ChemE friends tell me. It's a top notch engineering school otherwise (for civil/structural) that's as competitive as UCLA-Berkeley. The hangout spot is Geisel Library for engineers. The people are socially awkward, generally. You go to this school to get business done, *edit, unless you're an international student livinpartying in the I-House.
*UCSB is known to have beautiful student population. They know how to party, but they still have a cast of students that give them a great engineering reputation. A bit wealthy - upscale location, in cozy Santa Barbara. As I've been told, this school is one of the few UC's that supports their sports.
UCI is like UCSD but more relaxed. The area is more suburban, the people are more relaxed with their studies, (my UCSD friends go there to party). The campus has loads of new science buildings. The dorms are also top-notch out of all the UC's.
*UCDavis is the UC school for the Bay Area students. Situated around farmland, it's one of the few UC schools to have a college town surround campus (you want this -- only Berkeley/UCSB can offer a feeling). College towns are cozy in the aspect that the entire area is focused around the university, and the city of Davis is known to be one of the best. The school has a great reputation otherwise. Everyone I've known who has gone to this school has really enjoyed it (San Jose really makes up for the majority of the student population, really)
The lowest rank I'd give is UC Merced. There's pretty much nothing-flatland around the new campus (google maps it yourself). As such, there isn't much prestige because it's a new school. The few kids I knew transferred or dropped out. It's really in the middle of nowhere.
UC Riverside has a bad reputation. However, if you're a perpetual slacker you can turn around very easily to pull straight A's from this campus. The student population resembles inland Southern California a bit more accurately (more hispanics - less whites), and there isn't a beach around.