<p>So Ive been accepted to UCI for the 2013/2014 year, and I'm absolutely delighted - I'm an Irish student and we have the opportunity to study abroad for a year. I just had a few questions which I hope UCI students could help me out on: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Where to live? Being honest, this year is my "break" year, so I would like to live somewhere that has a decent social/party atmosphere. The accomodation we can choose from looks really nice, but would people recommend finding my own housing/roommates in order to have a bit more freedom? </p></li>
<li><p>Frats - worth joining as an international student? Do they accept international students? Which ones have the best party reputations? </p></li>
<li><p>Workload in engineering. I'm not quite sure what to expect here, as the system in UC seems to be alot different to that here in Ireland. Most of our module weighting( about 70%), goes on a final exam, with the rest going for homeworks, labs, midterm tests etc. We also have about 25-30 scheduled hours per week between lectures, tutorials and labs. Is this similar to UCI engineering structure, and what kind of hours do the engineers put in? And yes - I do realise it will be quite high! </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Any input would be greatly appreciated!</p>