<p>it sounds awesome, but the problem is, despite it sounding and probably being awesome, there is no current presitge in the merced name.</p>
<p><a href="http://daviswiki.org/UC_Merced%5B/url%5D">http://daviswiki.org/UC_Merced</a></p>
<p>it is nice
it's like a small liberal arts college, with there being small class sizes and everything, but with a UC degree in the end.</p>
<p>It sounds like a great school in my opinion, and it's actually one of my top schools that I'm applying to.</p>
<p>I heard that UCM (and UCR) offer acceptance to anyone, even if you don't apply there, as long as you meet the UC minimum requirements. In fact, according to this book that I got on all the UC's, UCM accepts like 20% of people who don't even have a GPA of 3.0 and above.</p>
<p>I'm going to visit this weekend from L.A. I'll report back, but I like the small student body, the semester system, the newness, and the Yosemite partnership. Since my plan is to continue on to graduate school, sometimes going to a "bottom tiered" but UC makes for a better GPA that gets one into a top tiered graduate school, vs. working your butt off to get mediocre grades at a top tiered school and not getting into a top tiered graduate school. I like to keep my options open, have faith, and I am not a snob!</p>
<p>sounds like Merced is awesome! I like the small student to teacher ratio, it seems really good to be close to the professors as a freshman. i think i'm going to apply to merced. Yeah i agree with beatchick, it'd be good to get a high GPA at merced then to grad school. I like it how you can get so much attention as a freshman.</p>
<p>UC Merced is Awesome! I seen UCB, UCR and UCSC but UCM was most appealing!
Bobcats! =D</p>
<p>Um the first post in this thread states that there are </p>
<p>-There are underground tunnels form building to building so you don't get wet if it rains.</p>
<p>-They plant to have an indoor pool</p>
<p>Is this true, cuz i looked for a underground tunnel but couldn't find one, and i also look for a swimming pool, but there are only like 5 buildings too look for one, and its not in the gym, D/C, den, science and eng building or shah building. So did anyone else have luck finding these things. I think its like a game of find waldo</p>
<p>It's all lies......I'm 99% sure.</p>
<p>it will take LOTS of time to develop merced. Irvine is 45+ years old and its still growing. there's a bunch of construction going on right now. It still doesn't have the reputation that other UC schools have.</p>
<p>I agree, it'll take a while to establish the school although your description does sound amazing. Especially the underground tunnels!</p>
<p>But at this point I don't think the school is academically strong or diverse.</p>
<p>Don't go to a school on what it MIGHT become one day a long time from now. When you graduate in 4 years and are looking for a job, do you think UC Merced will impress employers as much as mid tier UC's? It's not even ranked (I know rankings are subjective, biased....) yet!</p>
<p>Seconded. Growth takes, like, decades...</p>
<p>To omegared179:</p>
<p>Try to be more open-minded and see the greater picture of things. In essence, where you graduate from doesn't necessarily matter, but what you study does. For instance, if I attend UC Berkeley and graduate with a degree in Afro-American studies, what good does that do me with prospective employers, especially in this type of economy? What you study is just as important as where you study it. </p>
<p>Additionally, do you really think employers take the time out and separate UCs from each other? For the most part, to employers, there is Berkeley, LA, and everyone else. Having the UC name is more than adequate when trying to impress potential employers. </p>
<p>Also, Merced isn't ranked because of its infancy. Just because a school isn't ranked doesn't automatically make it a horrible school.</p>
<p>fusionall is right, but so is omegared179 too about the job thing.</p>
<p>you have to keep in mind for yourself right now, which school's going to either allow you to go to a good graduate school or get a good job/internship when you're finished with your first four years.</p>
<p>true, UCM might become a terrific mid-tier or top-tier school in about 5-10 years, but for now i don't think it will do much good for students. no offense to the students already there, college IS what you make of it. i'm just imagining like a coalition of students suddenly starting up many many things in UCM that'll make it known for stuff.</p>
<p>i don't know, i just wouldn't choose UCM right now as a graduating senior, even though UCM might have really great potential to become a really good school</p>
<p>I was at UCSD in the early-70’s; it was opened in, I think, 1959. Twelve years later it was very respected in a number of fields (particularly chemistry, physics, and, of course anything associated with Scripps) but was still considered very “new”. Many of the non-science departments were just beginning to fully flesh out and develop personalities or a specific focus. Psych went in the direction of cognitive psych, with the RNL group doing some very significant work, whereas the history department seemed to not have any particular focus. Physics was a house divided between the particle physics guys and the astrophysics folks, and the battles were brutal over which side of the department would get the next tenure track slot that became available. “Central” library was a standing joke, because it was way the heck off and gone in the woods, far from Revelle & Muir. Many of the paths weren’t even paved, and 3rd College had just started and was in WWII Quonset huts. Today UCSD is clearly the #3 school in the UC system, and there are some majors where it is clearly #1.</p>
<p>What does that mean for UCM? Being a pioneer at a school means being willing to roll with some amount of chaos. On the one hand, there may never be a better time to get the chance to work directly with faculty members (and UCM has hired some great people) – on the other departments are still thinly staffed, and it is pretty much impossible for you as a student to predict the way in which certain departments are going to grow and evolve. You’re going to go to school in a construction zone, and construction is going to interfere with everything from labs to dorms, because nothing will ever get built quite as the schedule anticipated. Students who arrive and then later figure out that UCM doesn’t have capacity in some area that’s really important will leave. Students who want to help create a “feel” on the campus have the chance to do so. (At UCSD students, faculty, and staff jointly built the Hut, which was this small great place to grab a sandwich and sit outside and eat. It drew everyone.) There was NOTHING off campus within walking distance other than really, really expensive cliff-edge mansions, and there wasn’t much public transportation. </p>
<p>UCM will undoubtedly be a different school in 10 years. For now, students have got to decide if it has enough of what they want to put up with what it doesn’t yet have.</p>
<p>Being a pioneer student is great in UCM. I miss freshmen year living in the dorms. We had janitors clean our bathroom for us, T1 internet speed, and classes were in California room or the back side of the library. (California room is the dorm’s multi-use room and the walking distance was 1 minute from the dorms. I would just wake up at 8:29am and attend class at 8:30am in my pajamas. Where can you do that in a university? LOL. Also, the front of the library was still in construction; therefore, we had used the backdoor). Now we have to walk 5-10 minutes to our classes in the classroom building.</p>
<p>To Arian19: LOL at the tunnel. I know where it is. It’s a hallway that leads the font of the library to the back to the side of classroom building. There is no swimming pool yet.</p>
<p>To lemon<em>lime</em>rush:
Many of our professors came from other respected universities
Anne Kelly- well respected chemist
Raymond Chiao- taught in Berkley for 38 years
Arnold D. Kim- Stanford (Best professor ever IMO)
Andy LiWang- from Texa A&M
Beno</p>