<p>I am asking the question since S is applying to UCSD and UCLA. We used to live in CA. Loved it. Are UC schools as good as they used to be? How bad it is going to be in the next few years for students?</p>
<p>I do think the California schools are as good as they used to be. My son got into UCLA last year but declined to attend there, mainly because we live in LA and it was too close to home and also because we all felt it was not the best place for his major. I do think that students have a harder time getting classes than they used to due to the budget cuts in California, and it MAY take your son longer than four years to graduate due to the cuts. He was accepted to the School of Engineering and there they told us the average engineering student takes four and a half years to graduate…that was their answer last spring.</p>
<p>This is a worrying issue. For computer science, a smaller budget means fewer tutors to hire, which is a pretty big deal since we have a ton of tutors. Having tutors in the labs is one of the few things that really makes our department stand out from other universities. Beside the obvious educational benefits of tutoring, it really helps to build stronger relationships with the professors and brings the CS undergrad community together. I know that some local software companies have donated money for tutors, but that can only go so far.</p>
<p>I applied to 6 UCs, 1 private, and 1 JC. While UC San Diego was my absolute first choice a month ago, I’m highly considering the Community College. I don’t want to pay close-to-private tuition to go to a declining public school. Also, UCSD is switching to a holistic review and is lowering the enrollment goals this year, so that may kill my chances. We’ll see in March.</p>
<p>I’ve been at UCSD since before the budget cuts and the only change I’ve noticed is that there are slightly fewer classes offered. I’m still graduating in 3 years. I mean, it’s not impossible. The situation is not as dire as the media makes it out to be.</p>
<p>Interesting comments! THX folks!</p>
<p>@JeSuis</p>
<p>Declining public school huh? What do you really know? You don’t go here. Also, there’s plenty of students taking upper-division classes in their major during their first year. I’m not sure you can do that at community college. I don’t know how transfer students can’t be behind everyone else.</p>
<p>Yeah that was a really ill informed comment I made haha. It was based on one thing someone told me who goes to UC Davis. Definitely disregard that. </p>
<p>I guess I was just trying to comfort myself because enrollment goals are going down yet again.</p>
<p>They are going down, but don’t worry. If you’re good enough, you’ll get in. Tuition is pretty expensive, but compared to CSUs, we seriously have it made. And FYI, UCSD is actually one of the best values (according to US News) for undergrad and climbing in prestige.</p>
<p>They have been and will be cutting costs, but the educational value is still there I’m a bit concerned what will happen if Californians don’t vote to continue the current taxes in the special election. We’ll be voting on the budget issues in a few months, and I hope Gov. Brown can make his case for the schools. If not, tuition will probably rise substantially.</p>
<p>I personally don’t notice any difference whatsoever. If anything, they fired the s*** professors and kept the good ones so you have a higher chance of getting a better education now. I also noticed on the salaries site that the good professor’s salaries have been going up.</p>
<p>OoPurestOo,
Where do you find these statistics on professors’ salaries?</p>
<p>The budget cuts haven’t hurt the UCs as much as it has hurt the CSUs. I don’t really feel too much impact compared to my friends who attend state schools and find it really hard to enroll in the classes they need and receive help from professors, and have many days off due to furloughs. I do not feel like UCSD is declining at all, and for the cost, it’s better than a majority of private schools. I still feel like professors are accessible and very willing to help you as long as you put in that effort also.</p>
<p>I still find that I can enroll in all the classes that I need, and even as an engineer major, I can still graduate in 4-years with some leeway to even minor. Given, I came in with some AP credits, but nonetheless, if you stay on track, don’t fail classes, it’s not impossible to graduate in 4. The game to play is to keep track ofwhich classes are offered which quarter (fall, winter or spring), because if you don’t enroll, it may be another year before they offer it again, especially if it’s very specific to your major and not a lot of people take it. It’s easy to enroll in lower-div classes because many of them are offered multiple times a year- mostly math series, chem series, physics series, etc… I’m currently a 2nd year, so I just began enrolling in upperdiv classes, so I don’t know if it will become harder get into classes you need, but your department advisor is a good resource to help you figure out which classes are dire to take. </p>
<p>However, this year, there were ~53,000 freshman applicants, 12% increase from last year. I’m not sure how the next years will be, especially since Gov. Brown wants to decrease funding to the UCs…</p>
<p>I attended 2006-2010 and was in the biology department. Changes noticed:</p>
<p>-furlong days = fewer administrative offices open, but if you get your stuff done on the days they are open, then it’s not really an issue</p>
<p>-fewer library hours = well, do you really need the library to be open until 2am? (Now reduced to midnight) There are other places to study (Price Center and your room are 2 24-hour places) and CLICs is 24-hours during 10th and finals weeks.</p>
<p>-fewer classes = some are offered once a year or every other year now. These are elective classes…they won’t be cutting the number of CHEM6A’s anytime soon.</p>
<p>-fewer TAs = it’s not really fewer TAs overall, but the number that get paid. Instead of having 6 credit TAs and 4 paid TAs, now it might be 8 credit TAs and 2 paid TAs.</p>
<p>-syllabi that aren’t printed = well, professors post it online and you can print it out yourself. Why waste paper?</p>
<p>-different lab requirements = you actually have a choice in which labs you can take, instead of being locked into that damn Microbiology lab that only has spots for 10 people.</p>
<p>It’s really not that bad. At least when I was there. I would go to a UC all over again. Not all private grad schools are as awesome as UCSD, especially when you factor in tuition costs. Damn equivalent of Tritonlink/WebReg takes 2 minutes to load a page.</p>
<p>Let me put it this way. I’m a biology major and science education, music, and psychology triple minor. It’s possible for me to graduate a quarter early without taking any summer classes. I came in with 12 units and was exempt from only one class.</p>
<p>structural engineering has had two of the four focus sequences pretty much butchered, and i know aero has taken some hits too.</p>
<p>they seriously just need to cut one of the million different bio majors here completely and save some classes for the rest of us; obviously budget cuts aren’t going to affect the people that have so many different classes they can choose from to graduate</p>
<p>^^ @ Experiment … It is the variety of biology classes and majors that draws students from across the country to study at UCSD. Yes, maybe, cutting the “human bio” major might make a TINY budget shift, but keep in mind that ucsd is the only school in CA to have such a dynamic program. </p>
<p>I think the thing that will make the biggest change is cutting the saleries of the TOP UCOP leaders. Just my $00.02</p>
<p>I don’t even see how cutting a biology major changes anything. They’re essentially all the same major with just a few class differences. How would that save money?</p>
<p>My S is interested in UCSD due to, primarily, its strong bio programs…</p>
<p>^ would he be less interested if they only offered say, six bio majors instead of eight?</p>
<p>Kings, I seriously doubt they would offer so many different bio majors if they were all the same classes. If they had to sub a different class, theres a ton of others within the department that are already offered. If one of our classes is canceled we have to go outside the department completely. </p>
<p>Not to mention only like 5% of all the bio majors combined go on to some type of health career.</p>