[SteveF]

Hi, I'm Steve and my company Fat Envelope Consultants offers professional support with the college admissions process.

That is true. Especially in an engineering field, the most important factors for graduate school are the grades you get and the research experience you gained (test scores are also important, but that’s another story). Would you have the opportunity to do better/more impressive research at UCSD?
Although academics and research opportunities are the probably the most important factors, there other dimensions to your decision. Which school offers more activities that meet your interest (sports, clubs, etc.)? Which location do you like better? Which school has the better social scene (in your opinion)? If you haven’t done so yet, it would be worth it to take a visit to USCD, just to get an in-person feel for the campus.