<p>When i recieved my admissions for UCI i was very excited but recently something was bugging me and i was wondering what i should do about it. Lately, ive been wanting to just go to a JC and tranfer to a better school. The jc is like 5 minutes from my house, way cheaper, and maybe itll give me a few years to get used to college. Is it a smart choice? If i maintain the grades will i be able to transfer to UCLA, or UCB?</p>
<p>First off, you can get into any grad school from UCI. It's all you. UCI is still a UC, and it comes with all the opportunities.</p>
<p>If money is an issue and you don't care about the college life, go to a JC. </p>
<p>I honestly say go to UCI unless you cannot stand you are going here, especially if you don't have a big heart into UCLA or UCB. You can transfer after two years if you hold a high GPA (one depending on your major/circumstance). Good luck on your decision man, this is a hard one.</p>
<p>the first two years at a uc are supposedly the funnest. if you dont mind giving that up, then go ahead and attend a jc and do your thing. it's probably funner, in my honest opinion, to just enter a uc and do 4 years. you get to meet various people, experience dorm life, and have freedom from your parents. some of my friends who went to a jc were too institutionalized with jc work (relatively easy in comparison), that they couldnt keep up with the uc pace once they transferred. keep in mind that they are "competing" against students who have already familiarized themselves with the uc system two years prior.</p>
<p>Yeah money i would say is the smallest issue. I just think i could get my stuff together at a JC. Way less distractions, i could work while attending, and i wouldnt be AS busy. Plus i want to go into a medical field so UCLA would be pretty nice.</p>
<p>When it comes to medical, it's all about the actual medical school. The school you go to in your undergraduate years do not define your medical status WHATSOEVER. Actually, in reality, getting into medical school has a lot to do with your GPA. The truth is a 3.5 at UCLA is equal to a 3.5 at UCI. As for the differences in school competition, there is no recognition (well maybe a little).</p>
<p>Personally, I'd go to UCI. I could not even imagine living at home my first two years and going to community college. But the decision is very personal so you gotta do what you gotta do.</p>
<p>if you're planning to go to med school, then I would suggest that you go to UCI because first of all, your undergrad schools especially between UCs won't matter to med schools, and second, community college classes are frowned upon by med school.</p>
<p>Tough decision.</p>
<p>Actually, I thought my junior year was the funnest. A lot of people I know (from UCI and other UC's) had mixed experiences their first year or year and 1/2. The reason is that it really is a transition year. So for me, while freshman year might not have been the best, I am very glad I had the experience to live away from home. I found it to be more of a growing/learning expereince as opposed to being the best year of my life.</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>Saying youre going to work and get your stuff together at a JC is somewhat idealistic. I have a couple of friends that said the same thing, but never did anything of the sort and just bored themselves to death for their first two years.</p>
<p>Honestly, as a med student, just go to UCI. They have a great med program and it will be a great start toward your degree. Taking med classes at a JC vs a UC is such a drastic change that I feel you may not be prepared for the shear amount of work needed at a UC. </p>
<p>Dont miss out on your early college years. If you still dont like UCI, then transfer.</p>
<p>go to uci, and re-apply while there. I am finishing up my second year undergrad in Mech engineering, and I reapplied to ucla, cal and ucsd. I got into ucsd, and will likely finish my engineering studies there. </p>
<p>I find it a little funny too, coming out of hs, ucsd prolly didn't even consider me, however after getting 2 years done, they've let me in. My grades arn't even way up there either, my GPA is 3.0, however, i've only taken phyiscs, math and engineering classes, thus the lower gpa. colleges recognize your gpa based on what classes you take.</p>
<p>i'd like to add that i know of a lot of people who started their schooling in JC, and took 3 years to get out. These arn't unacademic people either, it just takes that much to get a transfer agreement. </p>
<p>You can do as little as a quarter at UCI, withdrawl, attend jc, reapply everywhere else, resume work at uci, and then leave again for a different school. The reapplication is a process that involves going ot your counslor, (or calling), telling them you want to go back, adn the registrar re-activates billing. that's about it. as long as you don't leave on AP, or are asked to leav,e they'll likely allow you back. </p>
<p>I base all these assumptions off engineering school btw...</p>
<p>lbraasch, why are you transferring to UCSD to finish up your engineering schooling? UCI was not my first choice, but I ended up at UCI. From what I've heard, after two years of UCI, you won't want to transfer. On top of this, I'll be in the engineering field also so I'm wondering why you are transferring out.</p>
<p>jasOn....you are not right when you say that med schools do not consider, or give little considertion, to the undergrad school that an applicant came from. A 3.5 @ UCI is not equal to 3.5 at UCLA. In fact, ALL med schools have their own list (although they usually do not release it) of undergrad institutions and they rank them. Applicants that come from higher tier schools get points added to their application score and appliants that come from lower tier schools either get points removed from their score or they get nothing added or subtracted from their score. Also, one of my dad's friends, who works as an admission officer at Stanford medical school, has told me that UCB and UCLA are two schools that are close to the top of the list and students who come from these schools get a considerable amount of points added to their application score. Although med school admissions are notoriously numbers-based, they understand that it is WAY harder to get a A/A- at Berkeley than UCI. </p>
<p>I would still say go to UCI though because community college courses are looked down upon by med school admissions. You could go to UCI and then transfer to Cal or UCLA, but keep in mind that it is very hard to do that from another UC because they give priority to Community college students.</p>
<p>I stand corrected. ab_med, are majors taken in consideration? I'm not going into the medical field, but I hear the major does not matter as long as you have the requirements (and more to strengthen your app).</p>
<p>jasOn...major is not taken into consideration. One has an equal chance of going to med school from a non-science major as they would from biology or some other science major. You're right, all you need id the 6-8 classes that are required. In fact, some people say that it is advantageous to be a non-science major if you're applying to med school because med schools want well-rounded students.</p>
<p>I'm switching to ucsd for the following reasons...
1) ucsd is a more reputable university. it's ranked higher for both overall academics, as well as the engineering program being better as well.
2)Altho the UCI engineering facilities are new and nice, there are a lot of short comings wiht it. UCI is under a lot of construction right now for the science departmetns, but the labs and facilities are outright janky. Ever run logger pro for chem labs? Ever have to do a 2 hour lab 4 times b/c your hardware is messed up? I have. UCSD has REALLY nice facilities, very new, very nice.
3)I do not like the UCI atmosphere. It's really just a personal thing. I don't like the whole clubbing scene, or greek scene, and the whole social scene/party scene at uci is really in the clubs.
4) UCI is located in the middle of Irvine. Sure it's really in Newport Beach, and right next to laguna beach, it doens't change the fact that every day you see trak housing, and the same ole' thing. I come from the Bay Area, and am used to having a "downtown" area. Strip malls are not my idea of social hour. </p>
<p>I am basically generally not happy with the whole UCI experiance. A little too FOB for me (i hope that doesn't offend anyone). </p>
<p>As for goign there vs. JC. I recomend you do what I did. Go to UCI, start your studies, take a whole bunch of classes, and if you really don't like it, withdrawl, attend JC. Apply to all the other colleges again.</p>
<p>UC's offer priority to JC applicants, and so the loophole is that you apply while you're in JC. Does not change the fact that you're also enrolled in UCI, and able ot take classes at UCI if the re-application process doesn't swing in your favor. I got into UCSD even tho i only spent fall semester of this year at JC, and winter and spring quarters at UCI. Oddly enough, I got rejected from UCD though. </p>
<p>I really recomend you go the route i did, as progress in UC quarter system is actually really good. When i got admitted to UCSD, i didn't finish the required transfer classes for engineering, but they admitted me anyways as an undeclared, but i get priority durring my first year to transfer into the school of engineering.</p>
<p>Uhh...one word: Damn. I hope I enjoy myself at UCI...</p>
<p>Of course you saying "FOB" will offend us. WHy dont you try using a different word?</p>
<p>I really don't think the social scene is gunna be really really different between sd and irvine. La Jolla is not exactly a hotbed for college fun and is in a very affluent non-collegey area. And it has almost as many Asians as UCI (which I'm not saying is bad, I'm just commenting on the previous post). Now I have no idea about the engineering departments or facilities.</p>
<p>Do people really get offended by the term FOB? I'm under the impression that it's kinda like how latinos call white people "gringos"--it's not really derogatory, just descriptive. Maybe it's just cause I'm at UCI and there are so many Asians here that no one really cares or thinks you're racist for using the term "FOB".</p>
<p>Probably not offended, since it's too weak of a term. "Fob"...haha. i dont think the asians in uci came here via boat; there are better racist terms to describe asians. like dat phan once said, "The pilgrims came here FRESH OFF a BOAT. Why don't we call them fobs?"</p>