<p>Hey, I'm from Irvine. I'd love to go to UCI if I didn't live here, lol. But with my grades that's probably the only place i'll get into.</p>
<p>I'm applying to UCI.</p>
<p>I can answer any questions you have about UCI. I'll check this thread every couple days so feel free to post your hearts out.</p>
<p>how do you like it there? How is the quality of educatoin offered?</p>
<p>Well, let me put in a disclaimer - I am an alumnus of the university, not a current student. I have been out for a few years, so I can answer a lot of your questions in the past tense.</p>
<p>How did I like it at UCI?
I really liked it a lot. I met some of my best friends here, and I had a great time. The dorms were fun, and we always had plenty to do. The campus is beautiful, and we're really close to the beach. I was always treated well by the staff and administration, and I really felt like I was able to find my own niche there. There are a lot of students at UCI, but not so many that I felt insignificant.</p>
<p>How is the quality of education offered?
I feel that the quality of education was great. The classes you take as a freshman are pretty big, but that's the case at any UC school. There are tons of opportunities to do research as an undergraduate, and I think this is where students do a lot of their learning. It's a shame that research isn't a requirement for graduation, because you really put your skills to use in research, regardless of your subject area. The faculty is pretty available, and most of them live across the street at University Hills, which is the faculty housing. This means that they are on campus a lot more than faculty at other schools, where professors might have hour-long commutes. They are there earlier in the morning, they stay later in the evening, and they are even there on weekends sometimes. Of course, there are some profs that aren't that great, but if you show some courage and visit all of them, they usually warm up to you.</p>
<p>I would be doing you a disservice if I only focused on the good, so here's a little bit of the bad.</p>
<p>Social life
You can have a social life, but it won't come knocking at your door. You will have to take it upon yourself to find the parties and stuff that are going on. But if you're really into partying, just join a fraternity and you'll be fine. A lot of people commute, so they all disappear at 5:00 every day and many more people who live close by will go home on the weekends. I was one of the people who rarely went home, and I enjoyed the quiet weekends, and I was still able to find parties and people to hang out with if I looked.</p>
<p>School Spirit
I think UCI is lacking in this department, and I think it's mainly because we aren't great at sports. Going to a school with a great football team won't make you any smarter, but it will add to your experience. Our basketball team was good a few years ago and people really got into it, but now they're mediocre and people don't care again. So basically the students here are bandwagon hoppers when it comes to sports and school spirit. Another reason is that a lot of people who go here grew up dreaming about going to UCLA or Berkeley or Stanford and they attend UCI because they didn't get in to those places. This bothered me, because I got in to both UCLA and Berkeley and I didn't feel like I was "settling" for UCI, but the negativity around me sometimes made me feel like I was.</p>
<p>If I could do everything all over again, I would still attend UCI in a heartbeat. I treasured my years here and I am thankful for all that the university has done for me. I would have changed my major and probably studied harder and joined a couple more clubs, but other than that I loved it here.</p>
<p>Good posting...I will be on the fence if I get into UCI versus some other UC's I applied to.</p>
<p>Acalientekid, do you know how many UCI pre-med undergrads get into UCI's medical school? Also, do they favor students from UCI for med school over other schools? (Second question's answer seems kind of obvious)</p>
<p>Mediterranean-</p>
<p>I don't think that UCI med school has any kind of quota for accepting UCI students, but there are usually a healthy number of Irvine grads at UCI med. I went to their white coat ceremony in 2003, and I think that of the 91 people in the class, I counted about 12 who came from UCI. But keep in mind that all of the UC schools were well-represented. This might be because UC students will generally apply to all of the UC med schools (Irvine, Davis, San Diego, LA, SF), or at least most of them. </p>
<p>Do they favor UCI students? I'm not sure if they do, but it helps if one of your letter of rec writers is a researcher at the College of Medicine, or is a golfing buddy of the Dean of the Med School. Because UCI is so resarch-oriented, many of the med students who did their undergrad at UCI might have already had research experience at the College of Medicine or did some volunteer work at UCI Medical Center.</p>
<p>I do personally know a decent number of people who went to UCI medical school who had GPAs that are below average for med school. It could be that their previous affiliation with UCI carried enough weight that they were willing to look past the GPA.</p>
<p>Most of my friends from my undergraduate years did not go to UCI for medical school (maybe one or two did). I had more undergrad friends go to Harvard Medical School (six) than Irvine. I also had friends go to UCLA, Hopkins, Stanford, Yale, UCSF, and other fine schools. So if you can kick butt at UCI, you can go anywhere.</p>
<p>Wow...that's very impressive. Thanks for the ample amount of information; I think I noticed on one of the threads on CC that you said you went to UCI for free on a Regent's Scholarship. I'm looking into UCI as well, and my counselor's said I'm well qualified for the school. My parents seem okay with UCI as well (not like some parents who only want their children to go to the Ivy League)...so, if any more questions come to mind, I'll ask you. Thanks!</p>
<p>Med-</p>
<p>If you're interested in going into medicine, I hope you noticed that Dr. Irwin Rose, a researcher at the UCI College of Medicine, was recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. UCI is a very strong research school, and many undergraduates get published, which can definitely separate you from the rest of the pack when it comes to medical school applications. </p>
<p>I did go to UCI for free with the Regents' Scholarship, and hopefully you get one too. I was also in the Campuswide Honors Program, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was initially pre-med, but I later decided it wasn't for me and now I'm headed for UCLA's MBA program in the fall. I will admit that I was below UCLA's average admitted GPA for their MBA program, but apparently my experiences at UCI were good enough to help me overcome that.</p>
<p>Good luck with your college admissions process. If you have any more questions, feel free to post here or send me a private message.</p>
<p>AlicanteKid</p>
<p>Since you did pre-med, how hard did you find the science classes to be? (As in, was it possible to get straight A's? And if so, how much amount of effort was required?). I know that's quite a handful of Q's, and I appreciate your time. Thanks.</p>
<p>The biology classes were pretty easy at first. If you study even a little bit you should have no problem getting at least in the A-/B+ range. Once you hit sophomore year, they get more difficult and that's when they really start separating the contenders from the pretenders. The classes that are most difficult to get A's in are the labs, since they're all pretty small (maybe 20 people per lab section) and in that group they usually will only give maybe 2 or 3 A's. So if you have a ton of smart friends, make sure that you don't take too many labs with them. The satellite courses, which are the upper division courses that you can choose, can range from easy to hard. You can take something easy like Marine Biology, or something difficult like Molecular Biology of Cancer. It's up to you and what you want to pursue.</p>
<p>You have to take two years of chemistry with labs. General chemistry isn't too bad - it's just like what you should have learned in high school, the only difference being that there are more smart people in your class. The labs aren't mind-blowing either, you just have to do the work. Organic chemistry is a different story. Many people find this course hard. I kinda compare it to one of those "Magic Eye" puzzles - some people can see it and others can't. The o-chem faculty is really good, and the material is pretty fascinating, but if you're not a spatial type of thinker, it might be tough for you.</p>
<p>Lastly, you have to take a year of physics. Much of this is pretty straightforward. The labs are the most interesting part, since you get to build circuits and stuff like that. You really need to know what you're doing in the labs, but the TAs are pretty cool and usually you can do okay in those classes.</p>
<p>It is possible to get straight A's, but it's very rare. I would say that maybe 2 or 3 people each year graduate from Bio with a 4.0. It's tough. But a decent number of people are at 3.9 and above, which would make you competitive for any school. To be in that range, it takes a lot of effort and a good amount of luck. I'd say that those people studied for several hours a night. Luck becomes a factor when it comes to getting the right profs and TAs, and also studying the right material. You also have to stay healthy. A lot of the people I know who were always getting sick didn't do as well because they would have to take tests while drugged up on Ny-Quil or they'd lose study time because they had to stay in bed and sleep.</p>
<p>did you major in biology? (Maybe I missed where you said you did.) If not, what did you do?</p>
<p>Yes, majored in Bio Sci with a minor in Cognitive Psych.</p>
<p>When you say there are smart students that I may have to compete against at UC Irvine, what type of student are you talking about? (As in what was their high school GPA, SAT scores, etc.)</p>
<p>When I said that there are more smart students, that's just in comparison to your high school cohort. So while the material in a class like general chemistry is similar to what you might have seen in high school, the competition is tougher because the morons (at least most of them) have been weeded out. This is true at all campuses. </p>
<p>I would say that most of the people that you'll see in your science classes all took AP or Honors level science courses, and most of them did fairly well in them. They actually have Honors General Chemistry and Honors Organic Chemistry at UCI, and you can take Honors G-chem if (A) you got a 4 or 5 on the Chemistry AP, (B) scored high enough on the chemistry placement exam, or (C) Are a member of the Campuswide Honors Program. These courses are smaller and really feature the cream of the crop of the science students. You'll get more personal attention from the profs and you'll probably learn more, but it is more challenging. You don't get an extra grade point like you do in high school for an honors class, but the professors usually understand that the class is tougher and they try to be more generous with the grades.</p>
<p>I think last year's average admitted student had about a 3.9 UC GPA and an SAT score of about 1280-1290. Keep in mind that this is an average, so there are many people above that and many below that. But also keep in mind that the science majors tend to be on the higher end of the averages.</p>
<p>My UC GPA is around 4.4 and SAT is around 1550+...would there many students like me or just 10-20?</p>
<p>With those stats I'd say you're definitely in the running for both the Regents' Scholarship and the Campuswide Honors Program. I know that we have a good number of people who have 4.4 and 1500+, but not a ton over 1550. Great job!</p>
<p>When you say a good number of people with 1500+ and 4.4, is this number in the 100s or 1000s? Any approximation?</p>
<p>Lol, I know I sound paranoid, but I'm just interested in seeing how the competition is at UCI and the academic levels of the students.</p>
<p>I would definitely say that those stats would put you in the top 1% of your incoming class if you were to attend UCI. Of course, once you get to college you can throw SAT scores and GPAs out the window. Everyone starts out at 0.00. But I would say maybe there would be 100 or so people in that range.</p>