For people who have been to UCSD

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>Whats it like!? People from socal have always been telling me to pick UCSD over UCSB</p>

2

<p>I’m not sure where you heard that, most people tell me that SD is pretty boring and socially pretty bad. I’ve always heard Irvine and SB are better.</p>

3

<p>Visually, very cement…very boring and bland. It’s basically UCI (to me) with more prestige, and a beach (a VERY beautiful beach) nearby. They have this cool upside-down-glass-pyramid-looking-thing of a library…inside there’s a lot of Dr. Seuss stuff…also the campus seemed huge but isolated. My visit was very brief and it was during summer break so that could account for the quietness of the place. I also did not see many other parts of campus, again, it is huge. Maybe I picked the wrong part to visit.</p>

4

<p>i always hear ucsd is socially dead? is it cuz of the 6 colleges thing? i thought san diego is generally a really fun city to live in.</p>

5

<p>I’m a UCSD student and spent one quarter at UCI, so I’m familiar with both. UCI is definitely more socially dead than UCSD, but UCSD isn’t exactly king of the social scene either. It’s a huge campus, so it feels isolated but in reality you’re about 30 seconds from the 5 freeway and 15 minutes to downtown San Diego. La Jolla is a pretty ritzy place ($4+ million homes right next to campus) so it’s not exactly the most lively of all places, especially not up here at the north end of town. It’s right next to Black’s Beach (nudist) and Tory Pines golf course. All in all, it’s a beautiful area, but yeah, the campus isn’t exactly awe-inspiring in terms of architecture. Everything aside from Geisel (the “upside down pyramid” library that was mentioned) is drab and grey. Muir College is the worst offender in this regard.</p>

<p>I’m graduating in June, but I enjoyed the year I spent here. Lived on campus, too.</p>

6

<p>I’m gonna have to disagree with Grimes & Oceanpartier, and say that I thought that the campus looked amazing when I took a tour there a few months ago. Obviously, since it was only a tour, I have no idea how the social scene is though.</p>

<p>But as I say, I thought the campus looked great. Honestly, it was my favorite looking campus out of UCLA, UCB, & UCSD. I thought the buildings looked way newer, better kept and just all around nicer. I also thought everything about the campus seemed more clean and neat.</p>

<p>I’ve also visited the San Diego area many times throughout my life, and it’s one of my favorite places in the world cause of the weather and vibe of the area. I’d encourage you to take a visit to UCSD and see if it you like it before you make a decision tbh.</p>

7

<p>First and foremost, anything I’ve said in this post is just from my personal experience and views, and nothing can really do more justice towards your feel for UCSD and San Diego than checking the campus and the city out for yourself.</p>

<p>In my opinion, UCSD is an amazing campus. I’ve been to UCSD several times (convenient for me since I live in SD), and every time I’ve gone, its always a different experience. I’ve also been to all the UC Campuses except Merced, Davis, and Santa Cruz. Overall for me, everyone I’ve met at UCSD has been super friendly, easy to pick up conversations with random students, and I always get a pretty chill vibe at UCSD. At my last campus tour during transfer friday, a couple of random UCSD students joined our group and just started talking with everyone and it was all chill.</p>

<p>I think one of the biggest reasons why people tend to not like the campus itself is because of how spread out everything is compared to other campuses (walking from the village to price center is like a freaking journey of a walk). However, I think the six-college system is suppose to balance the separation out: as freshmen, you end up living around the same people, taking the same GE’s, individual student governments and organizations, etc. For us transfers, we get this type of community environment through the village, and from the way I see it, are a little disconnect with our colleges as compared to freshmen. </p>

<p>Other complaints I’ve heard about the campus itself is the architecture and the vast amount of trees. As opposed to campuses like Cal and LA where the architecture has the traditional cathedral type of buildings and architecture, UCSD has very modernist architecture. It’s true many of the buildings are sort of grey and concrete, but there are also amazing buildings as well. I listed some of my favorite stuff from what ive seen below. Regarding the trees, I think its kind of hit or miss if you like it or not. I personally like the trees because I always think it hides the campus, making it like a hidden town of smart people or something haha. It also gives off the vibe of being separated from the world, so you can focus on your studies.</p>

<p>In reality, UCSD is smack dab in the middle of La Jolla. La Jolla is extremely urban and a fancy type of neighborhood, and is always busy with cars and traffic. The mall is like a mile away, downtown is like a 15 minute drive away, Mexico is like 30 minutes (I can see Mexico from my backyard lol) and the beach is walking distance. I’ve lived in San Diego my whole life and still find new things to do in San Diego.</p>

<p>I cant fully speak for the social vibe as a student since I’m barely transferring, but I personally hate it when people call a campus anti-social without actually going there as a student. It may be cliche, but your college experience socially is going to be only as good as to how much effort you put into it. Obviously, if you go to school just to take classes, get straight A’s, and get out, then of course its going to unbalance your social life. Even if you went to schools like UCSB or UCLA, just by going to that school isn’t going to hand out free friends or get you laid or something. For some reason, I feel like some people measure how social a school is just by how many parties they have—if you think that way then UCSD is not for you, more-so the fact that UCSD probably wouldn’t even want you here. Back on topic, from what I’ve heard from my friends at UCSD,it does get quiet during the weekends. If you must party every weekend, downtown and pacific beach (all within 15-20 minutes driving) gets crazy every weekend. As a campus from what I’ve seen, there are so many ways to socialize and make friends—however the decision to participate and do so is entirely up to you. For me personally, I can’t wait to get to the village, meet my roommates and neighbors, take them to some chill taco shops and go get some beers or something haha (many of us as transfers are over 21 of course).</p>

<p>Overall, every campus is awesome in its own way. You can ask online and other people as much as you want, but the only way to truly get a feel for a campus is going to that school and talking to students that go there. I always tell myself if there was a campus with Cal’s prestige, UCSB’s campus, UCI’s park and vibe, UCLA’s student body, sports and spirit, and bring it to UCSD’s location, it would make like the perfect UC haha. </p>

<h2>TL : DR</h2>

<p>UCSD is awesome. SD is awesome. Dont fully judge a school just on what other people say—go to that campus, see how YOU like it, and talk to students that actually go there and get their opinion. It’s people that have this notion that UCSD = UC(socially dead) without even going there that I think screw it up for prospective students. YOUR SOCIAL LIFE IS WHATEVER YOU MAKE OF IT----AND UCSD HAS LOTS OF OPPORTUNITIES TO BE SOCIAL.</p>

<p>Hope this post was informative and helps people and helps break the assumption of UCSD being socially dead.</p>

<p>Cool video that I found that’s an example that UCSD isnt antisocial and that your social life is only dependent on how much effort you put into it.
[Muir</a> College UCSD LipDub Trailer - YouTube](<a href=“Muir College UCSD LipDub Trailer - YouTube”>Muir College UCSD LipDub Trailer - YouTube)</p>

<p>Some cool buildings I like about UCSD—a lot of these arent really seen on the campus tour
<a href=“http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1304460046-1.jpg[/url]”>http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1304460046-1.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/graphics/images/2010/10-05_atkinson_hall.jpg[/url]”>http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/graphics/images/2010/10-05_atkinson_hall.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.nasland.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/civil_supercomputer1.jpg[/url]”>http://www.nasland.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/civil_supercomputer1.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/UCSD-Warren_Pano.jpg[/url]”>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/UCSD-Warren_Pano.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://hmcarchitects.com/assets/work/higher_education/ucsd_rady_phase_i/images/1hi.jpg[/url]”>http://hmcarchitects.com/assets/work/higher_education/ucsd_rady_phase_i/images/1hi.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://blog.studioearchitects.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/100909_009C.jpg[/url]”>http://blog.studioearchitects.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/100909_009C.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>I never went to UCSD (although I plan to apply), but I lived there for 5 years – originally from LA. Compared to LA, SD is a bit… mellow. Although the five years I lived there were the best years of my life. It’s true that UCSD is not a party school. No parties, no frat row or whatever. Outside of that, I had a bigger social circle/social life there than I do here in LA. The people are nice, and again, it’s a laid back city. I’d go back in a heartbeat.</p>

9

<p>SD is absolutely gorgeous.</p>

10

<p>I heard this San Diego place was boring bros…</p>

11

<p>I have a friend who’ll be graduating this semester (he’s been there 5 years now) and he’s told me that it was indeed quite boring, except for his IM basketball games.</p>

<p>I’ve went to visit him a few times over the course of the past few years and I can tell you that it does look very nice. The campus is huuuge, though, so that could be kind of a turn off. It’s also super close to Black’s beach which is nice. Long way down and an even harder climb up, but it is nice haha. </p>

<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC</p>

12

<p>Personally, I think La Jolla and San Diego are great areas that offer a lot. I’m not sure why UCSD gets the socially dead label as if there’s never anything to do because it’s been really overstated. Granted UCSD is not UCSB, if you want your college experience to be like a National Lampoon/American Pie movie UCSD is NOT the place for you. UCSD is much too respected of an academic institution for its student body to have “partying” as priority numero uno. That said SDSU is 15 miles down the 5/8 Freeway and a lot of UCSD students that need to go to a massive kegger every night end up there.</p>

<p>I think the “socially dead” label is perpetuated by two things: one UCSD’s campus is MASSIVE and two there’s no greek row as an easy area for parties/socializing. UCSD has the largest central campus out of all of the UCs, so it can feel kind of isolated and remote. Having driven around there several times, it really feels as if you need a car or at the very least a bicycle to get around the entire campus. Luckily, there’s the six college system that kind of conveniently keeps you from having to trek across the 2000 acre campus. However, it seems as if it would limit the amount of people you’d see/interact with on a daily basis, which coupled with the fact that because everyone is distributed over 2000 acres can give the perception that there’s less going on as compared to some of the other UCs, like UCLA for instance where a student body even larger than UCSD’s is packed into an area that’s 5 times smaller. Having talked to people that go there, it isn’t as hard to find parties/social events as some people suggest. Sure, there isn’t a huge greek system where you can walk down a street full of frats/sororities any day of the week with a party going on. At UCSD if you want to party you have to actually socialize with people and engage yourself with other students to find out what’s actually going on. Yes you actually have to be sociable if you want to party. From what I’ve heard there usually isn’t much going on directly on campus because the campus police are fairly strict, but there are decent parties that go on every weekend where all the off campus housing is. </p>

<p>Just more about the area and the campus, UCSD’s campus buildings in my opinion aren’t overly impressive. As someone mentioned before, outside of the library the architecture seems pretty uninspired and very gray/concrete. It definitely isn’t UCLA in that regard. The campus though regardless is very nice and because it’s so spread out and there’s so much natural landscape feels less crowded and very relaxed, which I liked. La Jolla is a beautiful area, every bit as nice as Santa Barbara IMO. La Jolla feels like a true beach town and having the beach 2 miles down the road from campus is a huge selling point for me. I spent some time down in San Diego over spring break and there are a number of gorgeous beaches. I had fun kayaking off La Jolla Shores and snorkeling in the La Jolla underwater park as well as surfing at Black’s Beach. Mission Beach is a nice area with a boardwalk that has games and a roller coaster and downtown has plenty of bars and clubs to satisfy those that like to go out and drink. I find San Diego ideal in that it’s the best of both worlds. La Jolla is very much a beach town like Santa Barbara, but not nearly as isolated with a major city just 15 miles away. And San Diego isn’t quite as big with as many things to do as LA, but it doesn’t feel as crowded and as hectic either and there isn’t nearly as much traffic. </p>

<p>So that’s kind of my overall take of it. Yeah UCSD isn’t a huge party school, but I’d take it’s academic reputation, beautiful nearby beaches, and the plethora of things to do in San Diego as a substitute for a few less, smaller parties. It just comes down to personal preference though, everyone is going to want different things out of their college experience, you really should go there and make your own interpretations to see if a campus is right for you.</p>

13

<p>Also try to remember that Pacific Beach, just south of La Jolla/UTC, is the unofficial college party town of UCSD. LOTS of bars and young people, very casual atmosphere. I really enjoyed my time there.</p>

14

<p>@sld122: You think UCSD architecture is more pleasing than UCLA?! I love it here, don’t get me wrong, but UCLA (North Campus, anyway) is flat out gorgeous. UCSD isn’t run-down or anything, but it’s drab. Muir looks like a prison haha.</p>

<p>The weather here is either awesome or awful, but there’s enough awesome to make it worthwhile. If you can move here during the summer and get a head start on classes… I would do it in a heartbeat. Every day is perfect.</p>

15

<p>Im sorry but the campus at UCSD is AMAZING!! and everyone is so helpful, i think once you guys get in and start attending you will notice its not as socially dead as people think!
I <3 UCSD!</p>

16

<p>ok, i’ve discussed this several times here but i don’t understand why people think UCSD is boring. when you look back at the time you spent in college you are not going to consider the architecture or design, just the people and the city. san diego in general is an amazing city and an awesome place to party. i lived in san diego for 3 years from age 22-25 and had an AMAZING time. if you go to UCSD for marine biology and hang out only with people from your major then yes, UCSD is gonna be lame as eff. get out and explore the city and you will think its the greatest place on earth. its 30 minutes away from mexico where you can rent a gated, 8 bedroom house with your own pool and private security for $800 a month and can get a BUCKET of lobster for 20 bucks. how can san diego POSSIBLY suck? </p>

<p>also, im an avid surfer and have been on every beach up and down the west coast and i promise you, you won’t find more fantastic beaches in california then you would in san diego</p>

17

<p>“omgosh, i hated UCSD. the architecture was so horrible!” who the hell thinks like that?</p>

18

<p>@navymike: I’ve lived in San Diego for the past 17 years and before this lived in Orange County.</p>

<p>I love San Diego and have every intention of coming back here after law school. My only issue was with UCSD’s campus being labeled more attractive (visually) than UCLA. UCSD isn’t a dump, but it’s nothing you’ll remember as a thing of beauty after you leave (architecturally, anyway.) </p>

<p>On to your second point… nobody in their right mind goes to Mexico anymore from SD, not by car anyway. Some people still fly to Cabo down south, but NOBODY ventures down to TJ on a Friday night to hit the clubs/bars/houses. I remember it being popular to go down there in high school (2001-2005) but if I asked anyone in SD if they’re down to kick it in TJ for a week I’d get laughed at. And you’re a lot longer than 30 minutes away. Probably closer to 45 minutes to the border itself and over an hour until you’re actually in Mexico.</p>

19

<p>well, mexico wasn’t really one of my main points. last time i went was around 2005. and i lived downtown so mexico was 30 mins away for me. just because you go to UCSD doesn’t mean you have to live in la jolla. </p>

<p>my main points were:
san diego has so much more to offer than whats on the UCSD campus
who cares about the architecture of the school
if you can’t find a party in UCSD its because you’re not looking in the right places</p>

20

<p>@navymike192 :open_mouth: exact reasons why i wanna go to san diego!</p>