So I’ve been admitted to Revelle. Just realized it has a language GE. Is it possible to switch to Warren before the first semester?
Nope, unless you can prove that being in Revelle negatively impacts your graduation date by two or more quarters.
The lingustics department isn’t bad! What are your concerns about the language GE?
@groverrohan Well I currently take Latin, which varies in difficulty between many schools. I would have to take a new language which will probably negatively affect my GPA because I suck at learning languages. Also, I noticed the GE requires humanities and social sciences. Throughout my HS experience I’ve hated history classes and I’m not too excited about subjective grading in Humanities. I’m interested in math and sciences and this could deter me. How would I prove it will negatively affect my graduation date? Also, do you think there can be an exception because I havn’t entered yet and I applied (ignorantly) with Revelle as my first choice?
@ESAT45 You wouldn’t necessarily have to take a different language. The UCSD Linguistics department offers extended lower- and upper-division courses of study in Latin, and the completion of LTLA 100 fulfills the Revelle foreign language requirement. If you choose to continue your study of Latin, take a look at https://revelle.ucsd.edu/academics/general-education/language.html to determine which Latin course you’d be placed into. If you’re as bad at learning new languages as you believe, it may benefit you to simply continue with Latin.
The social science/history requirement isn’t too difficult to fulfill, and many students have AP/IB credit that allows them to bypass it entirely. Revelle’s history requirements are comparable to those of most colleges and are far easier than ERC’s, whose writing course is primarily history-based.
The Humanities series will have subjective grading, but you can make it easier to get a good grade by establishing a relationship with your TA. Also, this is not an issue unique to Revelle; every college has a writing sequence of some sort. Revelle’s sequence is longer, but the required essays seem to be shorter (if that’s any consolation).
If you like math and science, you’ll be happy to know that Revelle has the most math- and science-heavy curriculum out of any of the six colleges.
I assure you that you’re not alone in disliking the Revelle GE’s. However, I can also assure you that the college’s founders expected this. To achieve its goal of creating Renaissance individuals, Revelle makes its students take classes that they may not like, but that will help them become more well-rounded workers and thinkers.
I’m telling you all this because in the end, if you SIR to UCSD, you’re gonna be in Revelle. Unless you’re an engineer who can somehow shave off approximately 35 units by switching to Muir or Warren, Revelle GEs aren’t going to affect you enough to add two quarters to your graduation date and thereby give you a reason to transfer. But you should know that that’s okay! Most students in Revelle love it, and looking at UCSD as a whole, most students are very happy with the college that they’re sorted into. Revelle has a thriving community, fine dorms, a good location, and nice dining facilities. GEs exist in every college, and you might groan about HUM with the rest of us but each quarter is going to make you a little better at something new. Your GPA will survive, and so will you.