<p>Thank you jasOn and Sir L for the info about signing up for classes. I know at some other school students sign up for classes at Orientation so it makes sense to go earlier in the summer. It seems more fair to do it the way UCI does it. </p>
<p>I also appreciate the advice about full SPOP over the one day. I would rather my son go to the full SPOP. I am sure it's more fun!</p>
<p>My son is still debating between UCI and UCSB although he tends to lean towards UCI (at least for today!). We should know better next week after he attends the day for Engineering majors at UCI. We may also go to UCSB on the 14th. I think UCSB's mechanical engineering is ranked higher than UCI's, but I think UCI as a whole fits my son's personality better. We'll see!</p>
<p>You are sure that i can change major at orientation right? I would like to be able to talk to the CHP counselors before i switch so i think orientation would be good. It is not late correct?</p>
<p>Yes, it's not late. During orientation for me everyone was advised to go to the counseling sessions of your intended major if you wanted to petition for a major change.</p>
<p>Changing is normally easy unless you want to change into an impacted major.</p>
<p>The Brian: </p>
<p>Each dorm building holds 70-80 students. This is not like Davis where each floor houses 70-100 students. Triples are common at UCD right now because of the population crisis they are suffering. Before this year, though, UCD has been mostly doubles. UCI is mostly doubles also with occassional singles and triples. I have 4 triple rooms and 4 single rooms in my dorm of about 80 students.</p>
<p>irvine is kind of a dead city at times, it is way better than other cities though. if you didnt know, irvine is a privately owned city, so they can afford to go out on luxuries that other cities can't. I live at uci in dorms at mesa court. You can go out on the weekends or on thursdays to go to clubs and what not to have fun, but after a few nights of this, it gets kinda dull. There is always the Spectrum, which has a lot of shops, good places to eat, and quite a few things to do, as well as just chill with your friends, the only thing is you need a car to get there, or have the patience to wait two hours to ride the bus, which you can for free since you are a UCI student.
Irvine has a really strong bio program, but just about all the sciences are really strong at UCI, as well as engineering. Bio is kind of a cutthroat program, since there are so many people who are going into that major, so good luck with that.
regarding the new student center, it should be finished by fall and open, but then again, it is construction, and they build the place only as fast as the funds come in, becasuse there was a skyscraper built across the freeway which is about 40 stories, and quite large, built in less than 6 months. the new student center is no where close to that in size, but UCI figures that it should be open by the time fall starts.</p>
<p>Kadya, thanks for the post. Do you know if the competition in bio lightens up after the first two years? I plan on going into microbiology or immunology which I hope will have less pre-med gunners.</p>
<p>once i matriculate to uci...and decide that i don't like it after a year..what do i have to do to transfer to other colleges? (not necessarily UC)..</p>
<p>That's an extremely difficult question to answer. For the most part, colleges will differ and they will be looking at your HS records to consider you as an early transfer. It's going to be hard and retaking the SATs does not work for UC to UC. I only know about early UC to UC transfers so I can go in-depth about that.</p>
<p>cbf88: The competition as you enter upper-division should increase because now you have people serious about their major. I'm personally scared of upper division EECS classes. I may be getting As now but later I'm not so sure.</p>
<p>Even though there may be less people, as jas0n said, the people who make it up there really care about what they are doing. The people who dont care or are iffy about their major, they get weeded out by the undergrad classes.
Im takin chem 1C this quarter, and there is already a huge difference from the when the class started from 1A at the beginning of the year. I had an excellent AP chem teacher so i was able to pass out of 1A and had ease in 1B, but people who dont care, or dont work hard enough, have to retake the class and waste their time, and get farther behind you, after which they reach a point and either change majors or do something else.<br>
Over here at the UC's , all the people who make it here, just about deserve to be here, but how much you want to stay and be the top of what you do, is solely determined by you. Every major in "Bio" section, will have the pre-med Gunners that you speak of. so it is something to really consider, because the drive and passion you have for what you want to do, will motivate you to be the best in what you want to be. However dont think that it will get easier as you go farther up into the upper-division classes because of less people, if anything it might get just that much harder.</p>
<p>Jas0n, do you happen to remember when last year's SPOP was? I'm thinking about applying to a summer internship and I'm just wondering if the two will clash schedule-wise. Thanks for all the help so far!</p>
<p>Edit: Nvm. I just found out the dates on a website. It looks like if I get the internship, I won't be able to make it to a full SPOP. :( Oh well...I'll just have to see how fate plays out.</p>
<p>Do I need to pay for phone service if I live in a dorm? I was thinking about just using my cell phone to save some money, but can I still use their internet without a paying for a phone line?</p>
<p>hmm... i have a few questions about housing. it seems like middle earth is more lively. if i decide to live in mesa court will it be less social..? since im coming from northcal i sorta need to network more. but than again... ive been reading and im hearing that ME is all nerds. so what kind of nerds do you mean..? you mean the ones that dont talk and only study study study..? because i am the opposite of that... also, would you suggest me to sign up for a theme? i really dont have much interest in any of them besides study abroad but it seems to be in a phase I hall which is very old and i definately dont want a crapy dorm. +_+</p>
<p>Everything people say about ME vs MC is really subjective. To be honest I say it's outright not true. Think about it. How is ME all of a sudden more nerdy than MC? What can justify it? The students coming in pick the housing on their own. UCI doesn't tell them "nerds should go to ME." The only reason would be because it's closer to the classrooms. But anyone, not just nerds, would like that also. Not only that, I think the nerds would be looking for a more isolated and nice place to study in. MC offers that. It's so subjective! Please don't fall into that weird stereotype. I haven't seen anything that is even close to consistent to that notion throughout my experience in the dorms. I do know that the general interest in MC are pretty lively. The themes do hold a bit of truth to them. If you choose an academic excellence hall at MC you will be more inclined to meet people who study a lot over choosing the general interest theme. Once again, it's all random.</p>