<p>Hey guys,
I am a Californian who's at Texas A&M CC and will be transferring back home to attend UC Riverside. Can anyone tell me how life is like over there? Is it one of the worst universities in terms of happiness? I am willing to give this one a chance so if you guys (from UCR or anywhere else) can give me a picture of how it is like over there, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Oh, before I forget, do you guys think that UCR is better than Cal Poly Pomona?
thanks again</p>
<p>UCR is better than Cal Poly Pomona but that’s not saying much. Both UCR and CPP are horrible in social atmosphere and surrounding area. CPP is a commuter school while UCR is a university that actually has more people staying on campus.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. So are you saying UCR is better since it has more people living on campus?</p>
<p>I have friends at cal poly pomona and they say its great over there, you know no complaints. So that means UCR is great too huh?</p>
<p>Lastly, are people relatively happy over there? I sorta wouldn’t wanna go to a uni where I’d have to face zombies everyday if you know what i mean.</p>
<p>I’ve stayed at UCR for weekends and can talk about my view on UCR life. </p>
<p>If you have a car it’s a much enjoyable experience because you can drive to LA/SD, home, eat off campus food that’s too far to walk etc.
There is a “dorm-life” experience although many people go home on the weekends.
A lot of people there aren’t overall ecstatic about being there (UC Rejects proves pretty true) but a lot of people are happy/content there.
Dorm food isn’t half bad IMO.
There’s no school spirit whatsoever. So you might miss that coming from A&M. </p>
<p>If you can find a good niche of friends/EC’s that you like you’ll be happy there.</p>
<p>personally, i absolutely hate UCR. The social environment sucks and it didnt seem like the atmosphere that I would want to study in. Idk, the whole studying atmosphere is very important to me so … yeah. just my own personal experience.</p>
<p>CPP smells like manure because they house a large number of horses there. If I remember correctly from the tour I took in high school, it sits atop a pretty big hill and someone from the Kellog’s family (yes, the cereal company)has a house there that the university now uses for something else.</p>
<p>One of my best friends went to UCR. No matter what anyone says, it’s still a UC and as such is a respected research university. Riverside is pretty much a desert though, so I hope you like parties and drinking because that’s all there is to do there unless you want to drive to Orange County or LA about 45 minutes away. Oh, and I’d highly recommend this place if you like Latinas :)</p>
<p>thanks,
I’m sorta anti-texas and I couldn’t give a damn about school spirit, let alone A&M spirit. I think you make a good point when you said that it’ll be all good once I find friends. you really changed my view about UCR in a good way. I think uni is what you make of it…at least thats how I survived A&M.</p>
<p>you know I was THIS close to going to cal poly pomona but I chose A&M CC instead. I still think it was a better choice, although I m not a fan of texas. Can you give me ethnicity statistics even though it doesn’t matter at all. I did go to high school overseas so I’m used to seeing a lot of different races and ethnicities. Is there anything at all to do in Riverside?</p>
<p>My sister attended UCR, and she liked it much. Yes it is a UC so you can say that it is a bigger school, and it is ranked higher. But, it really depends on the pursuit of your studies, especially your major. If your trying to pursue a PH.D or go to a professional school, I don’t think CPP is a better choice from UCR. However, if you plan to only get a B.S, CPP is the choice.
Cal Poly Pomona has a great engineering/architecture undergraduate program, which is seen very highly from corporations and industries.</p>
<p>You should look up CPP vs UCR threads on this site.</p>
<p>Well, im going for a BS for dental school and personally I hate Cal Poly Pomona because of their attitude when I tried to go through the steps during registration. Thanks for sharing your sister’s experience at UCR. I’m definitely going there, no doubt about it. Anything to escape Texas. Do you think I can transfer from UCR to UC Irvine when I am a junior (I am transferring into UC R as a sophomore)?
Thanks</p>
<p>I am certainly not downgrading. The A&M system cannot be compared to the UC system in anything (except maybe engineering but thats about it). I know that UCR is a hundred times better than A&M corpus christi based on rankings, achievements and a lot of other factors. I am very biased against other states and I have no family in Texas besides a relative in Austin. In california i have a lot of family and friends and Riverside is right next to hometown.</p>
<p>Oh. I didn’t catch it was Texas A&M Corpus Christi.</p>
<p>I have been admitted to UCSC and UC Davis in addition to Riverside.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to UCLA or any other school except Berkeley. Still waiting along with everyone else for the results on that.</p>
<p>I sort of wish I had applied to UCLA though, as my stats were somewhat competitive, and there were a lot of people with stats like mine, or worse, who got admitted.</p>
<p>I went to UCR for my freshman year, lived in dorms, ate the food etc and I can say, I the dorm food was usually pretty bad, some dorms are nice but others cramped and overflowed…the city of riverside is stagnant and kind of run down, especially the area right by campus (downtown riverside), there’s truly not much to do on weekend other than go to OC, LA, or SD…</p>
<p>Academically most people I know went there and didn’t like it and wanted to transfer (a lot did), most just “toughed” their way through it a lot of people were honestly not that smart at all. People with sub 3.0 gpa in HS who went there and say “at least it’s a UC” was really embarrassing. The campus itself is rather small relative to other UCs and when I visited other UCs (irvine, la, sd, sb) I was always jealous.</p>
<p>Well rccola70, it can’t get worse than corpus christi. I mean here i am being in a state that I desperately wanna get out of but at the same time, I’m really liking it here. sure some of my professors weren’t as good or qualified compared to last semester but i’ve gotta admit its all good. I bet UCR will be ok, i mean come on, its in Cali and thats the only state i’d rather be in right now. And if i still happen to not like riverside, i can always transfer to UCI because im going into UCR as a sophomore. </p>
<p>Don’t worry ComradeD, I don’t feel worse at all.</p>
<p>well…I can’t speak for corpus christi as I’ve never been to Texas but Riverside is like in the Inland Empire haha…highest unemployment rate in the state and foreclosure capitol of california and U.S. It’s probably not that bad just boring on weekends hence everyone going home…I say visit and see, I do know some people who like it but it’s just not my thing.</p>
<p>well trust me, you don’t want to come to corpus christi. its appalling compared to the inland empire, which is my home area/county.<br>
thanks for your insight though.</p>
<p>Oye, I wish you good luck at UCR.
I got waitlisted and rejected to that instituition as a freshman applicant.
I regretted the fact that I did not have the grades to get in. </p>
<p>It may be your advantage to choose UCR over CPP, since CPP is not very strong in their life sciences (although they hold their ground). Also, my sister and her friends got a decent GPA in UCR (of course GPA isn’t everything), and got into good medical schools–which are a little more selective than dental schools.</p>
<p>rrcola, although UCR may not have the same level of pristege as for example UCLA, you gotta understand that he’s aiming for dental school. And since that is the ultimate destination, the “how” in getting there which in his case is UCR, is not of any problem. Actually, going to UCLA and trying to get a high GPA can be seen a little unnecessarily, since it is considerably tougher than the same goal at UCR. If the final route is grad school, or professional school, studying ridiculously hard for the same GPA that can be acquired easier at a lesser institution has little gain, since grad schools care mainly for the GPA rather than the name of the school.
So, although UCR may seem like a “lower standard” compared to the top notch UC’s, it serves only as a path–a bridge to get into something that does matter in finding a job and living life.</p>