I am disappointed with UCI

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Irvine
21

I’m honestly considering withdrawing this quarter.

I’d rather be at a small college, and preferably, a school focused on undergraduates. IE, an LAC.

I’ve done well in my major courses, but find that the classes outside my major that I’d learn more about, like Chem and Physics, offer a horrible environment for learning the challanging material. I say this because the professors that I’ve had experience with don’t try to teach with the mindset that educating students is the priority. Instead, it is more like, “here is the material, get out of my face and hopefully the test causes all the bad students to kick the can so I don’t have to deal with them anymore.” <-- This is crap for two reasons. 1. It means that many of the 30,000 students aren’t learning. 2. It means that of these who aren’t learning, had they been at a different institution that actually cared, they might have become better educated. This is SAD. And, it means that the majority of UCI grads are royally screwed when it comes to applying for graduate school or medical school.

Doesn’t it bother anyone to see their peers struggle due to bad teaching and a lack of respect for the undergraduate population?

Not to mention that most tests are multiple choice because the faculty don’t want to grade 400 short answer questions, never mind an essay.

22

I, too, am somewhat disappointed with UCI (although for very different reasons). I don’t know how it is in your major but for mine (BME), the professors are winning all kinds of awards and running very exciting research labs. The downside to this is that most of them give zero f*cks about their lower div classes and are obviously only teaching them because they have to. Many have unrealistic expectations regarding our level of knowledge, expecting us to remember everything from bio/chem courses that many of us transfer students took several years ago. So when the first test/quiz comes around early in the quarter and the average is a 30 percent, our enthusiasm for learning the material instantly dies and we start to only care about doing whatever we can to pass.

Despite actually being a good school, UCI is still seen as “the backup” for many people. The surrounding area is safe and fairly affluent, making it the first choice for rich (mostly Chinese) kids who are only in school because their parents force them to or risk getting cut off from the family money supply. I’ve noticed that a very large majority of the international students around me are very obviously cheating on every assignment and exam. Faculty has no motivation to care since these students are paying big $$$ to go here and they aren’t worth expelling. I’ve seen some get caught and not even be punished. This was very shocking to me since I witnessed students get rescinded on the spot for cheating in community college.

If you’re willing to look past all this, it’s still a great school with a lot of resources to help you get to where you want to be.

23

I can’t believe I just found this thread, I hate this school so much, going to try and transfer out. Physics major (physical science great department) but I have to take engineering classes (engineering is the worst department here). The professors in engineering are the worst I have ever experienced, the worst professor in my community college is better than any engineering professor I have had so far here.

24

@Doisys and @ayymig: I’m sorry to hear that neither of you have had very positive experiences. I’m now an electrical engineering major again (switched back from computer engineering to the original major that I entered with), and I completely understand your complaints about the lackluster teaching abilities of many of the faculty members. So far I’ve only taken classes in the EECS department at UCI (save for one final GE this quarter due to missing one course from IGETC when I transferred). I managed to get a very good GPA in the fall but it was definitely an uphill battle, especially since one of my professors was absolutely awful - I literally had no idea what he was saying most of the time in lecture due to his heavy accent. Thankfully my other professors were much better.

I would say that out of my engineering classes this quarter, I have only one professor who can actually teach well (i.e. explain things in a thorough and easy-to-understand way). For the most part, I haven’t been given very much direction at all in my other classes and have had to work very hard in order to fully grasp the concepts. I guess the only way to get around this would be to work through as many practice problems as possible, and attempt any past midterms and final exams available - I used this strategy to get through that fall class with the terrible professor, and managed to pull an A- in the end. At a large school like UCI, and especially in a challenging major like engineering, you definitely have to be very self-motivated in order to succeed.

25

@ARandomPerson1 Yeah I already do that. I got the habit of doing extra work by not going to classes at my community college and just going to the midterms and the final, but I guess I just thought it would be different here because its a UC where I thought they would teach and I wouldn’t have to do what I did at my community college. I have gone back to my old ways and find that I have been more successful just doing what I did in the past and just read the book. I mean I can handle it here, its not as hard as it was my first quarter since I’ve just been doing my own thing. Self-motivation is definitely something I don’t lack, my problem is that I feel like I’m basically getting robbed because these professors don’t teach, but I guess I should of expected that since Professors are only chosen because of their research and not their ability to teach. Thank you for responding.

26

Go to cal tec

27

I think you, with your idealistic views of higher education, would be disappointed with any UC, I mean, they are not small private schools. Get real.

28

I’m sorry, FleetFeet, but it sounds like you had totally unrealistic expectations to begin with – at least in part due to not making the time to visit UCI prior to enrolling.

The UCs are public – not private. Why do you keep comparing to Stanford and MIT? Are they charging you $65,000 to attend? No, they are not. And as you’ve already mentioned that you applied but were denied admittance to Stanford, this comparison is useless. Filet mignon and ground beef also don’t taste the same – so what?

The UCs are also not all the same among themselves nor are they all considered the “state flagship”. The environment, etc, at UCB/UCLA is not going to be the same as at UC Merced.

Why the competition for so many things? Well, again – it’s a public institution. That means that the demand by students is greater than the supply of opportunities (not the opportunity to graduate with a degree, everyone enrolled can do that) – but the supply for “extra” opportunities (RA, research, etc.). Again, this is a public institution NOT a private one. If you want access to lots of extra goodies, then you might want to consider attending a private institution that you can get admitted to and that you can afford.

These comparisons are useless. You are at a large state school. Most of the complaints that you have are typical of what would be expected there.

Your expectations for a UC, any/every UC, were big because you were coming from a CC. But unfortunately your expectations were not rooted in reality.

Nonetheless, you’ve been handed an opportunity to earn a highly respected degree and then go out and do something big with it. The ball’s in your court. Make it happen!

29

One last thing, it’s commonly understood that the top UCs prestigious reputation is primarily based on their research and graduate schools – NOT for their undergraduate education. So you’re just experiencing that reality first-hand.

30

@CalBearsMom “Nonetheless, you’ve been handed an opportunity to earn a highly respected degree and then go out and do something big with it. The ball’s in your court. Make it happen!”

I’m actually tired of hearing this. It’s like people make up comforting stories to band-aid the fact that these UC schools offer a horrible education that is convoluted in the public eye because of the success of the research faculty, many of which are condescending and narcissistic – by the way. Furthermore, I’d even argue that a UCI shouldn’t be as respected as it is, nor should any UC degree. They deserve to be less respected by the public.

Anyway, at least I’ve managed to get the truth out on a public forum, which I view as a good thing.

I’m applying to transfer next fall to places like Reed, Sarah Lawerence and Occidental, and maybe even Hampshire.

I still cannot believe the atmosphere of the “well respected” UC’s. We really aren’t taught much, we don’t have to write essays or research papers, and we don’t have to give presentations, add on to this the fact that grades are artificially curved to a C+ and you get professors who don’t care much about outcomes since most grades are artificial anyway – as per University policy.

I hope one of the LAC’s will pull through for me, but I am not counting on it since I only have one good letter of Rec from the one professor I currently respect at UCI. So, I might just be stuck. And it’s true, if it weren’t for UCI I’d be at CC, though SCU would have been nice if they gave me more aid, I’m thankful for the shot at a BA, I guess? Sigh, I wonder if I would have been be better off never having enrolled at UCI in the first place, and to think they received 100,000 applications for Fall 2016… bless those poor souls.

31

And to think, UCI is ranked #9 best public undergraduate research university. If this is really true, this is a scary statistic.

32

I have mixed feelings about UCI. I like some aspects of it, but some part really disappointed me, too. Most of the people seemed to be really unmotivated, but we cannot blame them since most of them just graduated from high school. There are a few students that I’ve met who are actually more competitive, but they often give that “I’m getting all As book-smart” kind of feeling. However, the part that I dislike the most is the research opportunity.

UCI has such a name for being a “top research school,” like everyone from orientation and staff keep on mentioning that “you can get involve with research!” After I transferred here, truth is research opportunity is really scarce.
Yes, I’ve attended every single professor’s office hour (even request day-off from work,) read their research, ask questions, and the professors for sure know me, and nope, not a single research opportunity. Their lab is either full, or they are not taking students, or they referred me to the grad-student lab that we don’t even have the chance to meet the GRAD STUDENT who’s running the lab.
So yes, for that, I was, or I am, extremely disappointed with UCI. And it is definitely very discouraging after being rejected again and again, especially when I’m planning to apply for grad school and time is really essential for me as a transfer student.

But there are also some aspect that I like about UCI. Since the professors are some of the top leading researchers, they are able to share a lot of great real world information with us, and the guest speakers they invited to class are AMAZING. For one of my CLS class we even had the opportunity to visit the Santa Ana county jail and a federal woman’s prison. The campus is safe, there are plenty of good restaurant and choices, and there are many internship available. I got my current part time job and a summer internship position at one of the psychological clinic via UCI’s network.

Overall, there are the good and bad aspects. For the research I would just have to keep on trying. But, definitely don’t be too idealistic about coming here. Know that this is a campus that is… boring, in terms of most of the people are from local area and are mostly book smart. Oh yes there are parties hosted by some, but none as crazy as UCSB. It’s a nice campus though, just make your decision wisely.

33

I made the big mistake of reading this thread…(hopefully I enjoy my time at UCI)

34

@Mjain10 If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that everything you do is what you make of it. Even the worst places have possibilities and people that can motivate and excite you. Sometimes you’re surrounded by them. Sometimes you have to actively hunt them down. Either way, take it as a learning experience and hone yourself to be the best that you can possibly be in the moment.

35

@Lamorra thanks for the advice…fingers crossed :wink:

36

What is your major and how was the transition from community college?

37

Look I think this thread deserves an update from me.

While it’s true that I feel that UCI as totally ruined my chances at an education that I could have gotten had I not come to UCI because of my now large amount of loans, lower UCI gpa and general unhappiness in my major and with the school in general, it is probably a better experience straight out of high school.

I never made this thread to discourage new incoming freshman from pursuing college wherever they are accepted – we are all in the same situation, transfers included, and really, everyone looking at colleges. We all want a good experience and we all want to go tot he best schools we can.

For incoming freshman, do not feel bad about getting accepted into UC Irvine, admissions remain tough, if not tougher than ever before at colleges all over, and this is including UCI. Feel proud of your accomplishments. With that out of the way, notice that most of my complaints are from the perspective of a transfer student. I’m frustrated partially because I was basically treated like a sophomore after transferring in, being forced to take freshman classes over and then them being weeder classes after I already took the class at CC; this is extremely frustrating. As in, extremely extremely frustrating.

Secondly, I already had a good idea of what I’d like to do as far as research interests, and I was ready to get going on research projects, but it turned out that every lab was already full or not accepting students – this too, was extremely frustrating!!! How am I supposed to get into graduate school like this!? My transcript looks dumb because I’m repeating courses for lower grades and I’m not getting research experience. I’d have been better off not coming to UCI at all… In fact, I have 0 doubts that SCU would have offered me a way better experience etc. Look, this is true for me. But as a freshman, you have time to figure out your research interests and meet professors before your Junior year, unlike me. You also have the opportunity to avoid looking ridiculous with repeated classes on your transcript with lower grades the second time around, because you’ll just take it once at UCI.

And most importantly of all, I know some of you, if not most of you, probably received more rejection letters than acceptance letters, and if this is the case then you should absolutely not feel bad about having the opportunity to attend UCI. I can’t guarantee, however, that the lofty claims made by the tour guides will be true. The fact is that you probably won’t get research experience easily if you’re not in the top 10% of your class, but this is true at every college that isn’t private, small and hard to get into.

I guess, then, that this is me “getting real” about UCI. I’m not particularly impressed with the school, and it managed to destroy the passion I had for my major, and well, I’m not sure what I like about UCI. But I guess it’s just the way it is.

Transfer students, perhaps you do have reason to be weary after reading this thread.

38

That doesn’t sound right. Which classes are you referring to?

39

It seems your problems lie not with UCI itself, but with the strength and/or motivation of the student body. Irvine is known more as a research institution than it’s known for producing competent graduates.

“Maybe someone can help me to see why UCI has such a great reputation.”

Well, it really doesn’t. And I find it very hard to believe UCI is the 8th best public in the nation - there’s Berkeley, Michigan, Virginia, UCLA, UNC, UIUC, Georgia Tech, Wisconsin, Washington, and all of the UC’s except for Santa Cruz, Merced, and Riverside. If UCI ever did have a “great reputation” it would probably come from its research output. Just like people have mentioned in this thread, admissions standards are very lax for large public schools like UCI who have a ton of spots available. Preference has to be given to California residents for freshman admission, and UC schools kill themselves by allowing a huge amount of community college students to transfer in every year.

Irvine is statistically the 5th most selective UC behind Berkeley, LA, SD, SB, and Davis. It’s natural that not all of your classmates will be aiming for a “nobel prize” or a similar accomplishment, but is that really a bad thing?

With a bit of effort you could set yourself apart from your classmates and be the first student in your class to make a substantial contribution to their field.

40

You definitely need to visit each prospective school in person and do your homework before committing time, money and resources toward any institution of higher learning so you don’t get buyer’s remorse.