Regents

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Irvine
21

<p>albywalby-</p>

<p>Congratulations on the invite to the CHP. They only offer admission to the top 3% of the students who apply, so that's something of an honor. </p>

<p>The CHP can be looked at as having three different components - curriculum, advising, and social.</p>

<p>Curriculum
All students in the CHP must take the honors curriculum that currently consists of three year-long courses. Before you read on, keep in mind that ALL of these courses count towards fulfilling breadth requirements (aka G.E.'s), so you are not actually doing any extra work. The course you take as a freshman will be the Humanities Core Course, which is part writing course and part English class. You read books and write papers. This course is actually offered to all students, not just those in the CHP, but CHP students are in classes with other CHP students and have professors instead of TAs teaching the discussion sections.</p>

<p>In the second year, CHP students take the Social Science Honors course. This course goes over different disciplines in the school of social sciences (psychology, poli sci, economics, linguistics, etc.). In the third year, there is a Science Honors course that usually consists of chemistry, physics, and biology. Science majors in the CHP are exempt from this course. The final part of the curriculum is the research and thesis. Each student must do research with a faculty mentor for at least two quarters and write a thesis. The thesis is really the only "extra" thing that CHP students must do that regular students don't.</p>

<p>Advising
The CHP has special honors advisors who are there to help you plan your courses and answer any questions that you might have. This is great, since you would normally have to see a counselor at your school (i.e. Humanities, Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, etc.) and they may not be able to see you without an appointment. They also try to know each student personally so that they may give you the best quality advising possible. There are also three Honors Peer Advisors who are trained to help students with these things as well. </p>

<p>Students in the CHP get certain benefits like guaranteed on-campus housing, special Honors-only residence halls, priority enrollment for classes, extended library borrowing privileges, special study rooms in both libraries, and many other things. </p>

<p>Social
The social aspect of the CHP consists of the honors housing, a student council that plans many of the social events for the students, a weekly coffee hour on Friday morning for the honors students, and a number of different leadership opportunities available for students. </p>

<p>There is a lot more I can tell you about the CHP, but I would recommend that you try to attend the Honors Day and talk to the current students and the CHP office staff. They really do their best to let you know all about the program so that you can make the most informed decision about college that is possible.</p>

<p>As for scholarships, I don't know what percentage of students get a scholarship. I know that there are a few scholarships available other than the Regents', but I'm not sure when those notifications go out.</p>

<p>If you have any more specific questions, please feel free to post them here. If there is a student in a particular major that you'd like to be put in touch with, let me know and I'll see if I can make some phone calls.</p>

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<p>Alicante. Thanks once again for your wonderful insight into the CHP program. I checked out their website and I must say I'm impressed. It looks like a small community within a large school - which is something that is a big deal for me (and the reason why I applied to a lot of Liberal Arts Schools). </p>

<p>A few other questions that you might not be able to answer. Do you know how many invites they sent out for the Honors Day? And upon recieving this, does this mean that I'm already in? If about 160 kids go into the program each year, how many kids would they admit?</p>

<p>I'm planning to go into international relations/economics, so if you have any contacts in those fields, please give them a holler for me. </p>

<p>Other than that, what would you say about your CHP experience overall? What are some pros and cons to it?</p>

<p>UCI has always been a safety school for me, but after getting admited to the honors program, I'm taking a closer look at it, and it is quite impressive. The problem is... I'd have to stay in boring irvine! =)</p>

23

<p>Alby-</p>

<p>I don't know how many invitations they send out, but if you got one, you're already in. Obviously they send out a lot more than 160, since the students that are receiving invitations to the CHP are choosing amongst the top schools in the country. I don't know what the number is and it's probably something they wouldn't disclose to the public anyway.</p>

<p>I do know quite a few people in IR and Econ. Exactly what is it that you want to do in the future? Grad school? B-school? Law school? Let me know and I'll try to contact the right person. If you have no clue, let me know and I'll still try to hook you up with someone. I know that yackityack is a Political Science major, which might be up your alley. </p>

<p>My CHP experience was what made my college experience great. It gave me exactly what I was looking for in a college - a small, intimate community with the benefit of being at a large research university. I felt like it was the best of both worlds. What set the CHP at UCI apart from some of the other Honors Programs that I had the chance to join was the fact that it was a real program with people behind it. At some other schools, the honors program is simply a list of classes that you have to take and then you get a stamp on your diploma. But the CHP at UCI had counselors and staff that made me feel like I would matter, and I knew that I would have the opportunity to stand out.</p>

<p>Pros - Too many to name them all. First and foremost is knowing that there are professional staff people who "have your back". They will go to bat for you when you need things, and they help you make the absolute most out of your four years in college. Having guaranteed on-campus housing was awesome, since I didn't ever have to worry about having a place to live. Priority enrollment was great too, since it allowed me to make nice schedules that would allow me to graduate on time. One quarter I only had class on Wednesday and Thursday so I had five day weekends! I would have never been able to pull this off if I didn't have priority enrollment. We also have special honors sections of classes that are taught by faculty members and Ph.D. lecturers rather than grad students. The honors community is amazing, and you can really become a part of it if you want to. </p>

<p>Cons - Some of the people in the CHP are very exclusive. Not that they're elitist or anything, but they don't tend to have friends outside of the CHP. But I guess that can be said about a lot of groups. Some people who are in an ethnic club don't have any friends outside of that ethnic club. So I guess it's not a con exclusive to CHP. Some people don't like taking the honors curriculum, so I guess you can look at that as a con. But as I said before, all of the CHP classes fulfill breadth requirements, so it's not extra work. A lot of other people look at the thesis as a con, but doing research and writing a thesis is something you MUST do if you want to be competitive for grad school and professional school. Some of the CHP students are kinda nerdy as well, but you'll run into that at any college. But the vast majority of them are normal people that blend in with any crowd.</p>

<p>There are more pros and cons, and I can go into those later. But I too applied to Irvine as a safety school, but it kept looking better and better every time I got some kind of correspondence from them. Staying in boring Irvine is kinda a negative, but there are tons of people here who like the proximity to Newport and still find ways to party all week long. I guess it's what you make of it.</p>

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<p>Hey Alby, </p>

<p>Like alicantekid said, I am a polisci major (with a likely emphasis on IR). I am a first year here so I have only taken two polisci classes so far, but the professors that I've had have been great. And most of them really do enjoy teaching. Some schools like to say that at research universities the professors are only there for research and don't really care about the students or teaching. I have found this to be not true. I would imagine that there are some really good profs and some not so good ones, just like at any school, but the ones I've had so far have been pretty good.</p>

<p>I'm not nerdy! haha. I'm actually in honors housing, which has allowed me to meet a lot of honors kids and it does help, for instance before midterms a bunch of us have the same humanities core section and so we can do a little group study. It works out pretty nicely. But there are a lot of ways to get involved outside of CHP. For instance, I am involved with a Christian club on campus and a church and have met a lot of people through this.</p>

<p>Irvine is kinda boring, but I like the school. Lots of people go home on the weekend but there are still a pretty decent amount of NorCal-ers (like myself) who stay around. When I was applying to schools, UCI was my backup too, but when it came down to it, it just made a lot of sense to go here, and I'm glad I'm here.</p>

<p>Also, I wasn't notified about my sholarship until my official acceptance to UCI online on March 1st. Then a few days later a got a thing in the mail about it.</p>

<p>Feel free to ask any more questions.</p>

25

<p>alby-</p>

<p>Which high school do you go to? Uni?</p>

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<p>Thanks for the responses Alicante and yackityyack. It's great to hear from you guys, and both of you seem very devoted to talking about your alma mater, which is great. </p>

<p>Okay, so the questions: </p>

<p>Alicante, I'm actually hoping to go into some form of international business in the future, specifically dealing with Asia, since I'm asian. Haha. I don't know if you know of anyone, but It'd be great to talk to them to know how they're doing. </p>

<p>Also, I go to Northwood High School. It's new, and we'll be the 4th graduating class from it. However, our API is really high and a lot of rumors have been circulating about us overtaking Uni in the near future. Yeah well anyway, long story short, it's very competative, and it sucks cuz I work so hard and don't get far amongst the student body. Some other info, just in case you're curious, is that I'm taking 5 AP classes this year, and I have round a 4.2 UC GPA and decent SAT scores (check my previous posts... I know I posted them sometime). So yeah, that's a little bit about me haha. Perhaps you and yackityyack can IM me sometime over AIM. </p>

<p>I already signed up for the honors day on the 12th. Looking forward to attending because UCI has impressed me. But for now, it's still going to be one of my backups before I find out about the other colleges that I applied to (My first choice is Williams)</p>

<p>Some questions I have for you guys are:</p>

<p>What colleges did you apply to when you were in my situation and what made you choose UCI (a safety school) as opposed to others? Also, what graduate schools do graduates from the CHP program get into? </p>

<p>How is diversity amongst the program? Is it mainly filled with asians? Do kids usually get along or is it really competative? At 160 kids capped, I would assume there would be some major competition going on. </p>

<p>Also, how is the social life on campus? Alicante, you mentioned parties at Newport, which I know about (living in Irvine). But what exactly do you guys do for fun? And yackityyack, you mentioned clubs. What kind of clubs are on campus? As far as I know, Irvine really is a pretty boring place. There's nothing to do but eat. Lol.</p>

<p>Haha, and I might as well ask this now, but how were the dorms? And which one is better to live in? MC or ME? </p>

<p>Specifically for alicante, what did you major in and what are you doing nowadays?</p>

<p>Specifically for yackityyack, what do you think about the poli sci department? What classes are offered and how big are the classes? Also, what scholarship did you recieve? Do you know what scholarships are given besides the Regents and the Chancellors? I know that each of those are like $5000 right?</p>

<p>Thanks again in advance for all your help.</p>

27

<p>::pipes in::</p>

<p>i'd love to hear the answers to those realllllly good questions too, as irvine's my backup and i got the chp invite too...</p>

<p>thanks so much! you guys are incredibly helpful!</p>

28

<p>Woah lots of questions. Good.</p>

<p>The other school I was seriously considering besides UCI was Berkeley and honestly I probably would have gone there if they hadn't deferred me to spring admission. That being said, I'm glad I'm here. Also, I wasn't admitted to the CHP until after I sent in my SIR to UCI, although I already knew that I was getting a scholarship. </p>

<p>I think the program racially is pretty diverse. I am pretty much as white as they come. haha. I haven't really experienced any really strong competitive spirit among the students within my major, but it might be different in bio, alicantekid would know about that more. Well I've only had two polisci profs so far and they both enjoy teaching and I have had good experiences. After my intro polisci class, a lot of people from the class went up and shook the professor's hand and told him they really enjoyed his class. My intro to polisci class was pretty huge. Maybe 300 something, I'm not completely sure.</p>

<p>Hmmm...what to do in Irvine. Honestly, the most exciting part of Irvine is UCI. I am pretty involved with a Christian club on campus and I personally am not a partier. There are a bazillion clubs on campus: cultural, political, religious. Just like at most universities.There are a few clubs in Irvine and then in Newport that students and/or Greek organizations rent out/go to. But I have met a lot of great people and typically we just hang out, maybe catch a movie, eat (haha), and the beach is pretty close which is nice. Tomorrow I'm gunna go hang out in LA. I know that doesn't sound that exciting, but like I said, I'm just not much of a partier, but there certainly are parties around if that's your thing.</p>

<p>I live in Mesa Court. I think Mesa is better than Middle Earth (but maybe I'm biased) just because ME is little more nerdy (or so the stereotype goes...). Anyway, if you go to honors day, you can check them out I think. Also, I live in the honors hall which has some very overachieving students, haha. I think we have like 5-6 or something valedictorians in my 51 person hall.</p>

<p>Alicantekid knows more about the grad schools that people go to from UCI and specifically the CHP. But seriously, if you're GPA is up there and you're in honors, it's going to be very well respected. I'm planning on going to law school (although this isn't set in stone. I'm but a young 1st year!).</p>

<p>There are lots of polisci classes offered. I think there are 5-6 different modules for polisci that include IR, comparative politics, American gov., and a few others. Right now I'm taking intro to IR and I find it pretty interesting.</p>

<p>For my sholarship, I got the Chancellors which is 7,000 a year, and then I got other financial aid as well, so I go here for really cheap. It's awesome. The Regents is 9,000 I believe. A nice chunk of change from both of those.</p>

<p>Good luck with all those acceptances coming in!</p>

29

<p>What colleges did I apply to? I applied to Harvard, Brown, Notre Dame, USC, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, and UCI. I was accepted to all of them except for Harvard (surprise, surprise!). A number of things made me choose UCI. I liked it because it was a "medium" sized university. I was also invited to join the CHP and was offered a Regents' Scholarship. I just got the feeling that I would be taken care of at UCI and not get lost amongst the student body.</p>

<p>CHP students get in to any graduate school that you would want to go to. Name a grad school and I know someone who went/goes there. Stanford? Yup. Harvard? Yes. Cal Tech? Fo sho'. Hopkins? Check. Yale? Uh-huh. Berkeley? Tons. Not only are CHP students going to grad/professional school at these "big name" schools, but many of them are going for free with fellowships and scholarships that the CHP office helps them apply for and win.</p>

<p>In terms of competition, I think that it's pretty competitive but not cutthroat. People all try really hard to do their best, but not at the expense of someone else. They won't sabotage each other's experiments or anything, but they'll study really hard to try to get the best score in the class. People in the CHP are usually really good about putting together study groups, though, so they definitely work together and help each other out, especially with the Honors Humanities course they take in the first year. </p>

<p>The program is very diverse in majors and areas of academic interest, but ethnically, I would say that it is mostly made up of caucasians and Asians. Of course, there are several different Asian races, and we've got them all. Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indian, etc. We've got them all. We have a small handful of Latinos and very few, if any African Americans. </p>

<p>The program is not "capped" at 160, that is the amount of students the CHP aims to enroll. If they end up enrolling 165, that's fine, and if they enroll 155, that's fine too. Their target is 160, and they rarely hit it right on the nose, but they're always within a few people above or below that number.</p>

<p>Social life on campus isn't the greatest, but I know that the students who live in honors housing have a great time. There are also fraternity and sorority houses on campus in the Arroyo Vista complex, and they throw parties a few times a week. When I was in college, we hit a lot of dorm parties and also ended up going to a number of the things that the fraternities did. We also went to some of the local clubs and hung out with the people who lived in Newport that we met through various events. Once we got to be old enough, we also frequented a number of the bars as well as the Anthill Pub that is located on campus. I was rarely ever bored.</p>

<p>I lived in Mesa Court way back when, and I like it more than Middle, but I am also biased. But both are nice places to live. The rooms are pretty roomy when compared to the rooms you'll see at other campuses, and they don't have high rise dorms at UCI that make things very impersonal. The residence halls for freshmen usually number from 50 to about 75, so you'll probably know everyone in your building pretty well after a month or so of living there. The food is actually pretty good, and I remember putting on about 15 pounds between September and December.</p>

<p>I majored in Biology and got a minor in Psychology. As for what I do now, I work for the state of California's educational system. I am leaving my current position in July to pursue an MBA at a top 15 business school (whose name I will omit here).</p>

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<p>Your comments are really insightful, alicantekid. So, for bio majors, what differences are there between the CHP course and the "normal" course? Is it a lot more competitive? Are the grade curves harsh? Are there many bio majors in the CHP at the beginning? Do many change majors? If so, do they change because of lack of interest or stats (gpa and stuff)?</p>

<p>And as for classes - in general - are they much more competitive? Are they much more difficult than the "normal" curriculum (grade-wise and such)?</p>

<p>It'd be great if you could go into detail about these.</p>

<p>Thanks =). Cheers.</p>

<ul>
<li>Nervous</li>
</ul>

31

<p>atreeyum,</p>

<p>For bio majors, you take your biology courses with the general population, but you take honors humanities and honors general chemistry. I would definitely say that the level of education you get in the honors courses is higher, since everyone in the classes are supposedly more intelligent based on their high school performance. The grade curves are not harsh in these courses - in fact, they are often less harsh. The professors teaching the honors courses understand that everyone in their class is of top caliber, so they don't try to punish them for taking a tougher curriculum. Often a larger percentage of the class will get good grades than a regular class. For example, I remember in general chemistry one year, 75% of the class got a B+ or better, which is a much higher proportion than you would see in a regular chem class. In humanities, you read the exact same books at the exact same pace that the non-honors students do. The papers you write are also the same. The main difference is that everyone in your section is a CHP student and you have a professor teaching instead of a grad student. </p>

<p>There are a lot of bio majors in the CHP at the beginning, and some of them change majors because they find out that they aren't interested by the subject. I think that a lot of high school students think that they want to become doctors because they watch a lot of ER, but when they realize that it's going to take years of hard work, they decide they want to do something else instead. Going to medical school isn't for everyone. I knew a lot of people who definitely had the GPA to get into med school, but they were just not too excited about being doctors. Instead, they went off to do Ph.D.s or went into other industries. Some people change majors because of grades as well, but I think that's a smaller proportion.</p>

<p>Most of the classes you take will not be honors courses. As a bio major, you take honors humanities and honors chem, as I said above. During the second year, you take honors social science and you have the option to take honors organic chemistry. During the third year (although many students start earlier), you start your honors research and you write your honors thesis during the senior year. Other than that, you'll be taking "normal" classes.</p>

32

<p>Thanks for all the great info, alicantekid! I too am a candiate for CHP and am being considered for the Regents scholarship. I just had a few questions of my own. First, by looking at the schools you applied to, I'm assuming that UCI was close to being a safety school for you. So was there a specific reason you chose UCI over the other schools (schools that are publicly known to be better) you were accepted to? I also applied to UC Berkeley, and up til now, Berkeley has been my first choice. However, your insightful info has made me think twice. Are the people that are candidates for Irvine's CHP and Regent's scholarship usually accepted to Berkeley? Thanks for your time!</p>

33

<p>ShrimpLee-
You are right in assuming that UCI was a safety school for me. In fact, the only reason I applied was because I had taken a class field trip there in the 11th grade, and it was so easy to apply to extra UCs by checking off boxes. I think I must have had several different "first choices" until I finally made my decision. At first, Notre Dame was my first choice because I really liked their football team. But then I realized that was a dumb reason to like a school, and I also didn't want to spend 4 years in Indiana. So then I changed my mind and Brown was my top choice because I have family in Rhode Island, but then I visited the campus and I didn't like it. Harvard was always just a pipe dream, so I never really considered that among my choices. USC was never really an option back then, due to cost and its academic reputation at the time. So then it came down to the four UC schools. I knocked Berkeley off of my list because I don't like the city and because I felt like there were too many students there. I also felt the same about the size of UCLA's population, so basically it came down to UCSD or UCI. Being invited to the CHP and getting the Regents' Scholarship made it an easy choice. The people at UCI sent me postcards and called me on the phone, and I knew that I was really wanted there. I liked the campus, I liked the people, and the dorms were better than any of the other ones that I saw.</p>

<p>I'm not sure how it is now, but everyone in my class who was in CHP and got the Regents' Scholarship also got in to Berkeley (at least those who applied there did). I know that the average stats for those invited to CHP are usually about 4.3 with a 1430, and the Regents' Scholars are the upper crust of that group. So I'm assuming the average SAT for a Regents' Scholar is probably closer to 1500. There were even a small number of people I knew in college who turned down places like Stanford, Cal Tech, West Point, and even Harvard to take the money at UCI. Of course, many of these people ended up going to those schools for graduate/professional school. Remember - it's usually your last degree where you want to make sure you have the fancy "name". UCI (or any UC, for that matter) can definitely get you there if you put in the work.</p>

<p>Here's a couple funny stories about some of my friends from college. One of them, who I'll call "Leonard", was always bitter at Stanford because they didn't let him in as an undergrad. So he went to UCI over UCLA and Berkeley, and did really well, winning many prestigious national scholarships in his field. When it came time to apply for his Ph.D., he applied to Stanford knowing full well that they would let him in, and also knowing that he didn't want to go there. I remember he would have us come over to his room to listen to the messages that Stanford would leave on his answering machine (in the days before voice mail). They kept pestering him to consider them and they kept increasing the amount of his financial package every time they would call and he would ignore them. So basically the kid from the CHP at UCI had Stanford by the b@lls by the time he was a senior.</p>

<p>Another friend, let's call him "Art", had gotten rejected by Harvard as a high school senior (join the club) but performed brilliantly at UCI and also won a number of national awards and was being recruited by a number of big name grad schools. He already knew which one he wanted to go to, but applied to Harvard for a lot of the same reasons that Leonard applied to Stanford. Harvard actually spent the money to fly him out to Massachusetts and put him up in a hotel so they could show him their campus. He took them up on their offer just for the free trip and just so he can tell them no.</p>

<p>So the moral of the story is that CHP students at UCI do not lack any opportunities to get to the next step of higher education or jobs by choosing a school that is publicly perceived to not be as good as some other "name" schools that are perceived that way mainly because they're older schools and because they have football teams that they see on TV on Saturdays in the fall.</p>

34

<p>hmm I heard from someone that they already recieved a letter that they got regents... anyone know if that is true?</p>

35

<p>yeah, i got one today in the mail....but i live fairly close to irvine, so i dont know....hmmmm 9k a year is quite a bit....</p>

36

<p>i got my regent's letter yesterday too, and i live in socal.</p>

37

<p>I got my chancellor's in the mail today :0)</p>

38

<p>weee I live in the bay area and I just got my regent scholar letter in the mail today :)</p>

39

<p>Can you describe your experiences on honors experience day from registration to lunch to tours? What exactly did you do there? Do a lot of people attend? I'd like to have an idea in mind before i go.</p>

40

<p>Registration - You check in and you have the option to mill around in front of the lecture hall until it's time for things to start, or you can go inside. There are usually some current CHP students there "mingling" with the prospective students and their parents. They're there to answer questions that you might have (although you'll most likely get a lot of them answered during the session) or to talk about their experiences. Take advantage of them if one comes over to you. Hopefully they'll have a nametag that distinguishes them as a CHP student rather than a prospective student.</p>

<p>Morning session - The morning session consists of a number of parts. You will hear from Chancellor Cicerone, perhaps a Dean, and a member of the Honors Staff who will talk about the program and the advising aspect of it. There will also be a faculty member who will briefly talk about the CHP curriculum. Professor Roger McWilliams, who is the director of the CHP, will do a power point presentation, and I think the Director of Admissions will also be there doing a presentation. Usually the highlight of the morning session is the student panel. Five or six current students will be there to answer some prepared questions as well as field questions from the audience.</p>

<p>Lunch - after the morning session, the students will split up according to what school they belong to (i.e. Arts, Bio Sci, Engineering, Humanities, ICS, Physical Sciences, Social Ecology, Social Sciences, and Undecided/Undeclared). Aside from eating lunch, you will be treated to presentations arranged by the schools. Some will have more current students there, there will also be a number of faculty members there to talk about their research and answer question about their departments. Some schools will sequester the parents in a different room and have special presentations for them. Some of the science schools (I'm pretty sure Physical Sciences does this) will give students tours of labs.</p>

<p>Tours - After lunch, there is the option to go on a guided campus tour, library tour, or housing tour (you can go to all of them if you don't drag your heels after lunch). I recommend that you do the housing tours first, because if you miss out on the campus tour you can always come back and do another one or do a self-guided one. But if you miss the housing tours, it may be difficult to arrange another tour of the honors residence halls where you can actually go inside some of the bedrooms. The library tours are also pretty cool, since they usually bring out some of their special collections. You can also check out the bookstore when you're done. I think they will give discounts to all of the people who are there for honors day, just in case you want to pick up a t-shirt or sweater.</p>

<p>A lot of people attend, so it's also your chance to check out the people of the opposite gender (or same gender, if that's your thing) who you might be spending the next four years with. Make sure you write down the names of the people you found helpful, whether they are students, alumni, faculty, staff, tour guides, or whatever, just in case you want to contact them later. I'm sure most of them would be happy to give you their email addresses.</p>

<p>If you want to take another look at the campus, you can also attend Celebrate UCI, which is always held on the third Saturday in April, or Explore UCI, which you should hear about through the mail in the next few weeks. But to get the CHP experience, you should definitely try to attend the March 12 event if at all possible. If you have to fly in, John Wayne airport is only a few miles from campus and would be a cheap cab ride. Also see if you can attend one of the Stay Over Program days if they have them.</p>