<p>5200</a> north lake rd. merced ca - Google Maps</p>
<p>i can see why people consider UC Merced a dead-end safety...</p>
<p>well, honestly, i've never been there...what's the school like? are the surroundings better than what street view displays?</p>
<p>nobody has been to UCM?</p>
<p>I’ve been there. What do you want to know?</p>
<p>The facilities are top-notch and the professors are good. The problem for most people is that the school is kind of in the middle of nowhere. (The central valley always wanted their own UC school, and so they got UC Merced).</p>
<p>Fortunately, the weather in the central valley is pretty good most of the year–it only gets really hot there in the summer–and that’s when school is out. They put the school out on the northeast side of town–towards the forested area–so you don’t have to go far to get out of the flat valley and into the rolling hills.</p>
<p>The closest big city, though is Fresno, maybe an hour away—and then if you have a car, you can get to either San Francisco, Los Angeles, or San Jose in about 3 hours. Skiing is pretty good about an hour and a half north during the winter months–and you aren’t too far from either the Sequoia National Park or Yosemite National Park. But Merced is kind of quiet–although it is preferable to most of the other cities nearby that they could have chosen for this university’s location</p>
<p>The only reason the university ranks lower than some of the other schools is because (1) it is new, (2) it is kind of far away from the big cities and therefore doesn’t attract as many top students, and (3) because the other UC schools are all highly ranked to begin with (California’s UCs all rank in the top 35 public universities nationwide, with the single exception being Merced). So, it’s not a bad school, just not as well-known or as highly ranked as schools like UCLA or UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>what’s the view like? what are the students like? housing?</p>
<p>The city of Merced is a very nice city of about 80,000, and not desolate at all. The UC campus was built outside of town to give plenty of space for future expansion, and the town is surrounded by farmland, so a photo like you display (probably taken in the middle of summer when school is not in session and everything is at its dryest) might appear “desolate.” The campus is only a few years old, so the landscaping is new and some time is required before the trees and shrubs fill in a bit. If you are considering attending you should visit the campus and the town and see for yourself. [City</a> of Merced, CA - Living In](<a href=“http://www.cityofmerced.org/services/residents.asp]City”>http://www.cityofmerced.org/services/residents.asp)</p>
<p>cool…what are the students like? the student body seems overwhelmingly diverse…</p>
<p>lol this thread is desolate</p>
<p>There’s a UC in Merced?</p>
<p>[UC</a> Merced](<a href=“http://www.ucmerced.edu/]UC”>http://www.ucmerced.edu/)</p>