Our First Year At UCR

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Riverside
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<p>Hey guys,
I think most of us just finished up our first year at UCR or graduated and at this time of the year, the next wave of freshman are getting ready to start. This site was a great source of information for me last summer, but aside from the obvious class questions, there were some questions I never even thought of asking and some rules I learned very quickly.</p>

<p>-What do you call your professor?
Everyone always told me call them Dr. first or you might offend them. So I always have addressed my professors as such, but every single professor I've had hasn't really cared. I think what Im trying to get across is there is a wide array of professors you'll get and you have to learn to adapt to each one's different styles. </p>

<p>-Should I bring my laptop to class?
I thought this would be almost required before I started and I'm not sure why I ever thought that. I brought my laptop to my first class and quickly realized it was a bigger distraction than the hot girl sitting in front of me. Half the class had laptops in my first chemistry class and every single one of them was on Facebook or playing games. Every professor has different rules on computers and such. Some won't even let you touch your phone during lecture.</p>

<p>-Can I really just show up and leave class whenever I feel like it?
Usually, yes. I took 12 classes during the last school year and I only had one professor that would kick you out of class if you were late. The rest of course said you should be on time, but never said anything to late students or students that leave half way through the lecture. Obviously, you should aim to be on time and stay for the whole lecture, otherwise what was the point of even going?</p>

<p>-My fiends in college always say there are classes with lectures that are pointless so they don't go. Is that true?
Yes, you will realize some lectures are pointless to go to for many different reasons. Does that mean you shouldn't go? No! You should still go! Just being around the material will help you, even if you don't exactly learn anything from your professor. I'll admit it, I didn't go to half my lectures, I went to all my discussions. Good idea? Not the best. I got B's in those classes, but if I had gone those would have been A's. </p>

<p>-Should I take morning classes/How should I schedule my classes?
It depends on the type of person you are. Chances are you're going to have late nights studying or staying up with friends, and you're going to hate being in class at 8 like you're still in high school. Morning classes aren't for me and you'll see that afternoon classes generally between 11-3 are the ones that fill up the fastest. </p>

<p>You will most likely not have the most amazing schedule your first quarter because everyone else has priority over you and you have no idea what your experience will be like. I have friends that prefer schedules of classes back to back to back and others that like having breaks in between their classes. Each has its advantages. Back to back classes, yes you'll be done with your school day faster, but you'll have no break and having 3 classes back to back could be tiring for some. Having breaks in between will extend your school day, but you won't be rushing anywhere. You're schedule will probably end up with some breaks you won't exactly like but you're going to have to deal with it.</p>

<p>Lecture days will be grouped as such, Tuesday and Thursday(an hour and 20 minutes), Monday Wednesday Friday(50 minutes), or Monday and Wednesday(Could be for 50 minutes or an hour and 20 minutes). Every class will then have a discussion section in which you and about 30 students go over homework/talk about lecture/review with a graduate student; these are 50 minutes once a week and could be on any random day during the week. Classes like Physics/Chemistry/Biology/Engineering courses will have 3 hour labs once a week.</p>

<p>You can try to do some cool things with your schedule from there. Ideally, I'd prefer to have all my classes on Tuesday and Thursday with MWF off, but thats almost impossible if you take 4 classes. The best I could do was get one day with no classes and I consider myself lucky for being able to do that my first two quarters.</p>

<p>-Everyone goes home on the weekends. Maybe I should too?
You know what Im just going to say **** that! I wish someone had sat me down and told me to stop going home every weekend my first quarter. We all have different reasons for going home, maybe you're homesick, miss your hometown friends, have a girlfriend/boyfriend back home. Well guess what, you're going to make new friends, you're going to meet new girls/guys you want to date, and most of all if you're going home every weekend, not only are you missing out on your college experience, but why are you even paying for a dorm! My second and third quarter were amazing, spent it with friends I hope to have for the rest of my life. I almost protest having to go home now.</p>

<p>Of course, you're going to hear things like there's nothing to do in Riverside so I'm going to go home. Obviously, Riverside isn't LA or San Diego, but people i hear saying that usually have too much time on their hands. Go get a job and stop living off daddy if you're that bored. Go make some new friends! Some people expect the college experience to find them, but you have to go get it. </p>

<p>-I met some friends that party every weekend.
This is high school all over again. There will be that group of kids that always party, but they might not make it to the next level this time. The less committed people will start to fall off. </p>

<p>The most important things I've learned are:
-Time management, you don't always have to go out. Party hard, study harder.
-Surround yourself with the right friends
-Learn how to cook
-Go to your professor's/TA's office hours if you don't understand something(especially math and science courses). Most students don't do this. I've had one on one tutoring with my professors and TA's because nobody shows up.
-Girlfriends and boyfriends are going to come and go, but your friends are going to be there forever.
-Get a job even if you're parents pay for everything. I don't think they want to pay for the trip to the Bahamas your friends want to take. </p>

<p>Any questions? Go for it. I'm a mechanical engineering major and opted to live at Grandmarc(apartments off campus) instead of dorming my first year.</p>

<p>If you couldn't tell, I have a lot of time on my hands. I'll be in Riverside all summer taking Physics so if you want to grab some lunch or hang out, get at me! </p>

<p>I hope everyone else will contribute some advice or funny stories from their first year!</p>

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<p>Hmmmm. Im a mechanical engineer who just finished his first year too. Do I know you? lol</p>

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<p>-What do you call your professor?
lol. ive never called any of my professors “Doctor”. I always called them Professor [insert surname here]. Some of my professors told me to call them by their first name haha.</p>

<p>-Everyone goes home on the weekends. Maybe I should too?
imo, the only point of going to a four year college or university is to get the full college experience. if you’re gonna live at home and not immerse yourself fully in college life, you might as well go to community college first. For the people who say there’s nothing to do here on the weekends, you’re not trying hard enough. There’s plenty to do if you look for it. Of course it’s not going to just come to you. It’s a new place with new people and new surroundings. Let yourself get adjusted. That’s not going to happen if you’re at home home all the time.
“Some people expect the college experience to find them, but you have to go get it.” - what robotkat said.</p>

<p>-Go to your professor’s/TA’s office hours if you don’t understand something
one of the best things about ucr. if you want help, it’s easily available. there’s the learning center, and all my professors and TAs were always happy to meet up with me and even make appointments around my schedule. Even professors who i didn’t take classes from were happy to meet with me around my schedule!</p>

<p>I’m a second year pre-business major who dormed my first year. I rushed a frat my first quarter and am very active with various extracurriculars. ive already gotten three officer positions in a couple clubs and have a paying internship, so feel free to ask me any questions too! There’s so much i did my first year that i never did before. it was awesome. Your first year should be great, but it’s up to you to take initiative to make it great. =]</p>

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<p>ROBOTKAT***** this post has a lot of good tips and info, I’m going to be majoring in mechanical engineering too in the fall…have any tips for me? Thank you so much!! (anyway to convince my parents not to force me to go home every weekend? I know telling them I’m going to miss the college experience wont help) thanks so much!!</p>

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<p>How does UCR compare with the other UC’s. Are you satisfied with choosing UCR? How much math do you have to take for an engineering major?</p>

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<p>@himself
maybe!? I didn’t make too many ME friends because I just decided to switch right before spring quarter. And our major doesn’t seem to know how to have too much fun lol. </p>

<p>@x8equals
Hopefully I’ll catch ya in some business classes next year! I was at this party in San Bernardino and this guy walks up to me(he’s totally gone and later that night we all find out he’s a male stripper lol) and he says hey you’re a lion and that girl you’re looking at is a zebra. Do you think a zebra ever invites a lion out to dinner? Do you think a lion asks a zebra if its ok to eat it? I swear the best advice from a drunk person I’ve gotten all year. A bit malicious maybe lol but he was completely right.</p>

<p>@scrappycoco
I think most importantly decide this is really what you want to do. You do not want to waste your time with tuition costs only going up. Hopefully, you’re somewhat like me and answered maybe but all I know for sure is I want to do some kind of engineering. Don’t be disheartened when they drop the statistics on you at orientation(you’ll find out). Don’t get mad when your dick friends are worrying about whether to take a dance class or creative writing or something that just sounds fun because you will never get to take “fun” classes like that lol. The advisors are cool but you do not have to listen to everything they say. Know your options when it comes to what classes you can take. They act almost as if they expect you to fail or maybe that’s just the feeling I got. My advisor told me I shouldn’t take two math classes a quarter, I did it winter and spring quarter and was very satisfied with that decision because I finished off my math requirements. </p>

<p>My first quarter I took Math 9B, Intro to material sciences and engineering(before I realized chemistry wasn’t my thing even though I did great in the class), Chem 1A, and World History 15th century to the 18th century or something. They’re going to throw this at you during orientation check it out, looking at classes always gets me excited, I dont know why. <a href=“http://student.engr.ucr.edu/majors/ME%202010.pdf[/url]”>http://student.engr.ucr.edu/majors/ME%202010.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>@jojo
For engineering, and Im sure most majors, the material will be almost the same at all the UC’s. What’s changing is the caliber of students you are competing with(curves will change, professors expect more etc.). UCR has this horrible rep as the UC reject school and while I wouldn’t say its completely true, I have ran into too many students that I felt shouldn’t be here, as in they are having alot of trouble with general ed classes or are just horribly behind on their course plan. That doesn’t matter though, because that’s not you. College will ultimately be what you make of it. </p>

<p>I got into UCI, UC Davis, UC San Diego, and rejected from Berkley. All my friends always ask me why Riverside? Even when I got here, students asked me why Riverside? Well I didnt even apply here, but they sent me an acceptance. Really what it all come down to was Riverside just offered me more money. I’m definitely more than satisfied with my choice and I tell them all, this wasn’t my first pick dam it wasn’t even on my list, but Im still having the time of my life.</p>

<p>For Mechanical engineering and Im sure for most if not all engineering majors, you have to take Math 9A Derivatives, 9B Integrals, 9C Series/Limits, 46 Differential Equations, 10A Multi Variable Derivatives, and 10B Multi Variable Integrals. I finished it all this year and its not too bad; I felt AP Calc senior year was harder than any one of those classes, but maybe I’ve just matured alot since lol nahhhhh</p>

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<p>@scrappycoco
Watch out for ME-2/intro to mechanical engineering class. That’s like your first test in becoming a mechanical engineer. You take it in the winter.</p>

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<p>O yah Intro to Mechanical Engineering(ME 2) and probably the Physics series will be your first real classes. I took ME 2 in Spring and something like 80% of the class had failed it in Winter and were retaking it. </p>

<p>@himself
What are you taking in fall!</p>

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<p>@robokat
I want to do aerospace engineering, and mechanical engineering is very similar to that…do you know if ucr will have aerospace engineering? Is there any program at ucr related to aerospace engineering? How hard is engineering? like the course load and teachers on how they teach?
Is there like a plan quarter by quarter on which classes im supposed to take? or am i supposed to firgure all of that out myself?
THANKS so much!!!</p>

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<p>@robotkat
I got math 46, chem 1ha, phys 40c, and me18. I basically follow my course plan exactly. Thankfully i passed me2 rather convincingly in the winter.</p>

<p>@scrappycoco
course plan: <a href=“http://student.engr.ucr.edu/majors/ME%202010.pdf[/url]”>http://student.engr.ucr.edu/majors/ME%202010.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I will be a pre-business major in the fall.</p>

<p>I got placed into Math 4 and English 4. Am i really behind??</p>

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<p>@himself</p>

<p>hey thats really cool to have a pdf of all the recommended classes to take. i tried googling for my major but couldnt find it. What site is it? i only found it for me and chem. engineer.</p>

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<p>@rickster
[BCOE</a> Student Affairs: Majors](<a href=“http://student.engr.ucr.edu/majors/]BCOE”>Majors | Engineering Student Affairs). I only know the one for the engineering majors, not sure about other majors.</p>

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<p>@Himself
Will there be a 2011 catalog? And did you follow that guide? Thanks so much!</p>

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<p>I’m going to be majoring in mechanical engineering, how can I get back on track for English? Because I got placed into English 004, and I want to stay on track and graduate in 4 years. There’s no way I can do a summer course this summer to complete eng 004, when will I finish English? Thanks everyone!!! Also am I behind for engineering, I was placed in math 9a, first year calculus? Thanks</p>

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<p>@scrappycoco
Yeah most likely, but i doubt there’s gonna be any drastic changes if any. If there are changes, i forgot what were suppose to do. But they compensate you some how for sure. Yah i followed the 2010 catalog. Its strongly advised (by college) you follow it.</p>

<p>@scrappycoco
You can finish english the summer after your 1st year, which is what most people do. Or you can squeeze in the last english (engl 1c) class when you have a light quarter (3 lectures or less not including engl class) in your 2nd, 3rd, 4th year. Such as quarters where your exempt from a class with ap credits. However, engl 1c is a pain to get in the main year unless you have a very early registration time (seniors, honors, athletes). Personally, im planning to finish it spring quarter of my second year. I got priority registration from honors.</p>

<p>Math 9a is perfect, you’ll be right on schedule.</p>

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<p>@himself
Thanks so much for that info, that helps a lot! So do you think being in eng 004 is bad or good? Thanks!!</p>

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<p>I feel it makes no difference whether you get placed in engl 4 or engl 1a. Cause after the first year, the vast majority of people still need to take engl 1c (cause its so hard to get in the year!). Ive also had friends who place into engl 1a, but couldnt get engl 1b in the winter, and hence get pushed back. Just make sure you don’t fail engl 4, I have seen it happen…</p>

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<p>Being placed in Eng4 is not necessarily a bad thing. Placement tests are created to put you in the level that they think you belong in. There is usually a lot more busy work in Eng4 as compared to Eng1A (readings + ~4 essays).</p>

<p>Most people finish Eng4, Eng1a, and Eng1b their first year in UCR. I think Eng1c has become a senior standing class (meaning if you aren’t a senior, you won’t be allowed to take it… unless there are spaces available during registration… and there usually isn’t). However, if you are just dying to finish Eng1c, it is possible to take it in the summer.</p>

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<p>@scrappycoco
I don’t think there’s an official aerospace here but I know it falls under Mechanical engineering. Im sure if you get your bachelors in mechanical, you can get your masters in aerospace somewhere else. Well your math classes will all break down something like this: Final 50%, Midterm 30%, Homework 10%, and Quizzes 10%. Physics/Chemistry/Engineering courses will break down something similar except with two midterms. Work load won’t be too bad if you follow your course plan because its designed specifically for that reason. You’ll usually be getting one homework assignment per week as well as a quiz every week for math and science courses. </p>

<p>@himself
I’ll see ya in ME18 and 40C then! I finished math and chem up so if you need any books, ill sell them for less than whatever amazon has them for.</p>