Ask a current UCR freshman anything!

<p>I'm a freshman at UCR, undeclared, and I'm maintaining a 3.8 grade point average (for the first quarter at least..we'll see what happens)</p>

<p>I'd love to answer any and all questions you guys have, and I feel that I have a good perspective of the community since I do live in the dorms (east lothian).</p>

<p>Fire away!</p>

<p>how do the socially awkward do in dorms? i wouldn't say i'm socially awkward, i just get irked by a majority of people.</p>

<p>Couple:</p>

<p>How's the location?</p>

<p>I haven't had a chance to visit it yet, but I always here that there is nothing to do in Riverside.</p>

<p>Which begs the next question...</p>

<p>How's the party scene?</p>

<p>harrypotter: To be honest, just about every kid in my dorm hall is friends with each other, and even those who would normally be "socially awkward" seem to fit in just fine and make friends. I'm only speaking for East Lothian though, and I can't really say how things are for sure in the other dorms. There is this one dude though that never leaves his dorm..but if you put in a mild effort, you'll make friends.</p>

<p>jeffrey: The school itself is in a nicer part of Riverside, but if you head outside the school a little bit it gets ghetto. Like, crack whores coming up to your car ghetto. </p>

<p>There's not much to do in Riverside, it's not really a big thriving city or anything of the sort. There's hookah bars near campus, a really great record store, some decent places to eat, and that's it. There's also a nice mall about 10 minutes from campus. But the city is nothing special.</p>

<p>The frats and sororities throw the big parties, so if you're really into partying either join a frat/sorority or make friends with one. As for me, I've never actually been to a frat party, but I party every weekend or so with like 20 friends and it's usually a lot of fun. All depends on who you know really. Those kinds of parties are usually in apartments.</p>

<p>one question, is pre-med just as competative as UC irvine? Because I hear Irvine is extremely competitive with pre-meds.</p>

<p>Tough to say because I'm not pre-med myself. I'm going to have to guess no, but I know that we do have a program (the ucr to ucla thomas haider or something like that) that is ridiculously competitive.</p>

<p>how is the business program there?</p>

<p>i want to study hospitality management though i know that major isnt offered at riverside</p>

<p>correct me if i'm wrong. Because of the new medical school opening in 2012 or so, the UCR-UCLA Haider is going to be terminated this year or so?</p>

<p>Kallusive: I don't know about the business program here, though it does seem like a lot of people are in it. I've never taken any classes that a business major would have to. I can't seem to find any rankings on it.</p>

<p>Cal Poly Pomona has a top hotel management school, haha. Might want to look into that.</p>

<p>korean: There's not an official word on that yet, but I'm going to have to assume yes.</p>

<p>Do you know what the housing situation is for transfer students? I know they offer on campus housing to transfers.<br>
Do you know any transfer students that live on campus? And how satisfied are they?
Thanks</p>

<p>I'm thinking of studying Japanese this summer at UCR. Do you know what textbook they use in the 1st Year Japanese classes (JPN 1,2,3)? Thanks.</p>

<p>Do you know anything about the political science program there at Riverside?</p>

<p>Nathan: The dorms are open to transfers, but they fill up by freshman. Most transfers live in apartments (and I haven't actually met a transfer in the dorms). There's on-campus and off-campus apartments, and I'd recommend living on the on-campus for your first year of transfer.</p>

<p>NO idea about the japanese text book, haha. I don't know anyone taking japanese, sorry.</p>

<p>I'm not 100% sure on this, but I believe that we do have a good political science program here.</p>

<p>i'm thinking about applying for riverside next year, hows the asian diversity there? Are there a lot of chinese, korean, or japanese people (assuming you can tell the difference :D)?</p>

<p>also, do a lot of students just leave the campus during the weekends? i just read a post on the forum that claimed 90% of the students leave.</p>

<p>Well the school is about 60% asian, and the asian community is diverse in where they're from. So definitely a lot of diversity.</p>

<p>Yes, students do just leave campus on the weekends. I'll say between 80-90% of students leave campus, and yes, it does sort of kill the social life, haha. However, I usually stay, and as long as so many of my friends stay, then it's all fine.</p>

<p>This is kind of long, but... What would you say my chances are for admission into UCR assuming the following?
I go in undeclared, wanting to major in political science.
I have a 3.3gpa, hoping for a 3.5 by the end of my junior year to meet the 3.4 requirement for out of states.
I have about a 1600 on the SAT.
Involved in numerous clubs.
From one of the top ten high schools in my state.
I'm an out of state student from the east coast.
I'm in two lower level courses one step below college preparatory [math and science] but taking college preparatory courses otherwise with one honors course in history.</p>