<p>We've all heard the stories of how competitive it is at Berkeley among its bright students.</p>
<p>What about UCSD. How would you rate the competition there at UCSD. Is the competition there cutthroat?</p>
<p>I would say there is a STRONG presence of competition, but not as cutthroat as Cal or UCLA. You'll see this competition evolve as curves are less likely to make a difference anymore. That's why my advice is to take classes a quarter after everyone else has taken it. This way, all of those "hasty and smart" students who want to take everything by their four year plan won't affect your curve. If you're looking for a rating, I'd say 7/10 at UCSD.</p>
<p>Yeah - it's competitive, but it's not overbearing, and far removed from Cal at least. There are plenty of lazy bums, and there are a few people who'll blow you away, but most people are in between.</p>
<p>I have seen no cutthroatness at all. In fact, I've seen the opposite - people cheat by helping friends (in the same curved class) out on quizzes that are supposed be taken individually.</p>
<p>So far I haven't seen anything really cutthroat so far. I agree with what others have said here- there definitely are the slackers and the people that kind of blow you away but I don't know, I think that could be the case with most schools. But in general, if you're willing to put in the work and study your butt off, you can probably get at least a B in most classes (obvious exceptions are probably science/math/engineering classes). It's easier said than done though, because the 10 week workload in a quarter really feels overwhelming sometimes, so succeeding here definitely is no easy task. If you wanted a scale I'd say 7.5/10, if Berkeley is a 9.5 (which it probably is :P)</p>