<p>Irvine is supposed to be a commuter school, so to those who attend, does this have a significant impact on your social life and on the college in general? I'm not looking for a party school, but I don't really want to end up going that far away from home if the school is dead as soon as classes end. Is there stuff to do on the weekends, like parties, shopping, movies theaters, etc?</p>
<p>Also, is having a car necessary/useful for Irvine? It's in the suburbs, so I'm not too sure how accessible everything is. Would you say that public transportation is good/often used?</p>
<p>And lastly, are you happy with your choice to attend Irvine, why/why not? Also any general good/bad points about Irvine? Thanks</p>
<p>Living about a mile up the road from UCI, I must say, on friday nights...the school itself dies....there is no public transportation (figuratively speaking)..there is..but it's horrible and doesn't go anywhere that's worth going. It's best ot have a car or know someone who drives. Unless you can walk 5 miles to the IRvine spectrum, South Coast Plaza, or Fashion Island....you're going to need wheels.</p>
<p>I'm currently a senior at University High School down the street from UCI.
The nice thing about Irvine is that it's a very clean city with very little crime since the police are very "good" and they do their job.</p>
<p>Hey
I'm a freshman from Norcal in the dorms right now. The weekends definitely bring in a dead feeling. Looking out my window right now, there are about 1/3 cars left in the parking lot from the usual during the school week. This week is especially empty due to midterms just being finished. However, there are still plenty who stay behind (normally those who live far away - about 1.5hrs worth of driving). My roommate lives about 20-30 minutes from here but he stays most of the time. </p>
<p>If you are going to be here every weekend I STRONGLY recommend having a car . During the first quarter, I did not have a car. I rarely went to the groceries and highly depended on the commons. Now that I have a car, I eat something away from the dining commons every weekend. I can either make a trip to albertsons to slap something together, or I can go out and get some Pho or other asian foods :]. When you're bored, you can easily bring a few friends to the mall to watch a movie or go to some places to entertain yourself. Your quality of life definitely goes up with a car, but the costs definitely go up also.</p>
<p>Yes, it would be extremely beneficial to have a car if end up going to UCI. This school is a commuter school. Think of UCI as a bigger community college that happens to have dorms.</p>
<p>Irvine is a great city. It is very upper class, looks clean, and is a safe area. However, you do need a car to get to places.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for all the advice. I do love that Irvine sounds like where I used to live (yay for bubbles) but at the same time, I want more of a traditional college experience and the accessibility of places like UCLA (hopefully I can get in). My other option besides some semi-reaches like Berkeley and SD is Davis (anyone want to chime in on the other UCs?), which is closer to home, but I'm not too sure I like the middle of nowhereness. So, eh, I don't know, its up in the air until I get all my acceptances back.
@ Calicurls, I don't really think I'm a sorority kind of girl, but probably works for other people.</p>
<p>I'm not a sorority girl either, but if I end up going to UCI and the social life sucks, then I'd seriously consider it. I know that a big perk about UCI is that it is relatively close to Newport Beach :) Its a cute beach town with some fun bars...In any case, I've never seen UCI as a "commuter school" (maybe I'm mistaken), I know many that go to UCi from the Bay Area. They definately don't commute. College life is what you make of it, if you look hard enough, I'm sure everyone can find things to do (at least I hope)</p>
<p>Well, if the social life sucks I'd seriously consider just going elsewhere xP. I never really saw any of the UCs as a commuter school (just cause they're all huge), but apparently, from what I read, UCI and UCSD are the two commuter-ish schools with reputations of being rather dead socially. Yeah, I agree, but hopefully if I make the right choice, I won't have to try too hard to make it good.</p>