<p>I'm currently a freshman Electrical Engineering student at UCI and I've lived in Irvine for nine years, so feel free to ask me any questions. I appreciated the help I got on this forum last year so I'm giving back to the community.</p>
<p>I have a couple regarding the majors.</p>
<p>How hard is Engineering over there in Irvine?
What about the sciences like Biological Sciences?</p>
<p>Engineering is incredibly hard if you're not strong at grasping concepts. If you actually understand what they're trying to teach, it takes no more than maybe two or three hours of study to be prepared for a midterm. Average freshmen GPA for engineering is 2.6 and about 50% drop out within the first year.</p>
<p>I hear similar statistics about biology. I think only about 150 or so students a year graduate with a bio major. ~50% drop out of bio after their first year.</p>
<p>My best advice for everyone is to just simply pick a major that you're interested in and that you're actually good at.</p>
<p>I've seen way too many people around here who want to become a doctor for the prestige and money and let me tell you, they're the first to flunk out.</p>
<p>Oh, here's a prime example: <a href="http://www.cecs.uci.edu/%7Egajski/ics151/mid1_fall04/md1problems.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.cecs.uci.edu/~gajski/ics151/mid1_fall04/md1problems.htm</a></p>
<p>This is a sample midterm from the class I took last quarter. Digital Logic Design. I think it's self explanatory.</p>
<p>Oh yes, and it was open book and open note, but as with all physics/engineering/math classes, open note really does nothing because you have to understand the concept.</p>
<p>I got a 17% on the final, but I got a B in the class thanks to the curve.</p>
<p>One of the complaints I've heard about UCI is that the campus empties out on the weekends. Is this less true of the CHP community? I think it might be lonely to have the campus empty.</p>
<p>coolman25 - </p>
<p>I'm glad to see that you got in to UCI and are remaining active on the boards. I remember last year you were sweating out the admissions process. Congrats on getting in and I hope you're enjoying yourself.</p>
<p>alicantekid</p>
<p>shojomo</p>
<p>I've heard the same thing...UCI is a "commuter" campus. Is this true?</p>
<p>A great deal of the students live either on-campus or in the apartment complexes that are across the street from campus. Those people are technically "commuters" but in my eyes, they're not. I view a commuter as someone who lives at their parents' home.</p>
<p>But what is true is that the campus does empty out a bit on the weekends. A lot of the students that live in the dorms live close to home, so they will go home to do laundry, pick up food, go to church, and things like that. What I ended up doing was becoming even better friends with the people that stuck around on the weekends like me. I never felt lonely or anything like that.</p>
<p>If you know people that live in Newport you'll never be lacking things to do on the weekends. Trust me on that one.</p>
<p>I second what alicantekid said...plus there are a lot of NorCal people here (like myself)..especially from all those competitive San Jose high schools.</p>
<p>Wow, is that a freshman course? It looks hard</p>
<p>i guess thats what i will be doing next year.</p>
<p>Alicantekid and yackityack</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses! My son was invited to join the CHP program...do most of those kids stay for the weekends? Are they a close knit group of kids?</p>
<p>hey coolman25, </p>
<p>i applied ee to uci, ok i have a fairly stupid question. how do you get to the 4th and 5th floor of the engineering building, do you guys use the elavator or what?</p>
<p>also how big are most of the engineering classes, I know they have the GIANT lecture hall like 50 yards away from the engineering and cs building, so what is the typical class size (e.g: your digital logic design class) and then maybe a bigger class like like PHYS101 or MATH calc II or III.</p>
<p>I lived in one of the honors dorms my freshmen year and I don't think it was that much different than normal students as far as people staying/leaving on the weekend. So probably what alicantekid said about commuters/weekend go-er-homers is the same for CHP students. I would say that overall the CHP students that live in the honors dorm tend to be tighter as they have many of the same honors classes together and share life together in the dorms.</p>
<p>But it depends on the person, some people are closet CHPers and don't really associate, however some take advantage of all the opportunities at UCI as a whole but also maintain strong CHP contacts, both socially and academically (well you kinda have to academically to stay in CHP). That's my take.</p>
<p>As for me, I feel pretty tight with my friends I've met through the CHP.</p>
<p>Alicantekid might have some insightful things to say about his relationships that he's built while in the CHP and the ones that have carried on several years after he's graduated since he has that perspective.</p>
<p>how hot are the girls?</p>
<p>yo shaqpak did u get in?</p>
<p>rage_fan</p>
<p>If you're talking about Engineering Tower, then yes, you use an elevator.</p>
<p>The classes have about 100 people in them (i believe my EECS 31 class last quarter had 99). I haven't had a class that's used the McDonnell Douglass Auditorium yet, but I doubt there are many.</p>
<p>Engineering classes are much smaller than biology because in Engineering you have specifics like "Electrical", "Mechanical", "Computer", "Chemical", "Biomedical", "Aerospace", etc.</p>
<p>Only Electrical Engineers and Computer Engineers take my EECS 31 (digital logic design) class, while ALL Biology majors take Biology 93, 94, etc.</p>
<p>Calculus classes are about the same size, somewhere around 100 people.</p>
<p>What you'll notice is that during college a LOT of people ditch lecture. Like only about 40 people would show up to my engineering lecture, but then all 99 would show up for the midterm.</p>
<p>To answer the commuter question, yes, a lot of people leave during the weekend.</p>
<p>I'm currently dorming in Mesa Court. about 75% of my suite is from Nor Cal, so they don't go home anyways. The rest usually choose to stay because the weekends are pretty fun. It's a hassle going home every weekend (and that's coming from a person whose house is only 15 minutes away from campus). I usually only go home to do laundry every two weeks or so, and I come right back when it's done.</p>
<p>Don't listen to the rumors that you won't have a social life, it's just not true. Just make sure you make new friends. Poker is a great way to socialize, btw :)</p>
<p>BenedictChan, it's actually a Sophomore class (or more like something people usually taking during their sophomore year), but I took the pre-requisite class during summer school, so I ended up taking it this year.</p>
<p>So this would be the second engineering class that everybody (Electrical and Computer Engineering) takes.</p>
<p>The first one is EECS 10 (Introduction to C Programming).</p>
<p>Do you know anything about the Econ or English programs? I was admitted for econ but I'm thinking about possibly changing it to bio or English sometime in the future.</p>