Hi everyone, I’m planning to transfer to one of the UCs in Fall 2016. I’m actually looking at international relations or political science as my major. I have UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC Davis as my top choices for my major. As I’m an international student, I’ve never visited any of the UCs before and the information i found online about the schools and their programs are like pretty limited and general.
Generally, I would like to know more about the schools (environment, culture, academics, location). Besides that, I would like to know if any anyone here is enrolled or considering to enrol in IR, International studies or Political science in any of these UCs? Which UC is more famous for their IR, IS, or Political science major? I was also wondering if anyone here could share with me their experiences, ideas or pros and cons about the schools listed above. I wouldn’t want to pick a school plainly based on rankings so, I thought that getting a point of view from a student who is studying there or who had studied there would be really helpful! Thank youuuu!
UCSD is often rated as the best UC for political science, but the environment I’ve also heard isn’t as social as some of the other UCs. Personally, I really don’t like the look of UCSD campus either, but hey you might!
UCI is ranked right in the middle of the UCs. The campus is new and nice, but pretty boring. I’ve only been on campus once for my bfs graduation and it was just meh. Although, I don’t personally know much about it’s political science program, but I know it either has the best model un or debate team in the country or something like that haha can’t remember exactly.
UCD has a great poly sci department and gives their undergrads lots of opportunities for experience- so I’ve heard. UCD is in the middle of know where (basically) so consider that too.
@Molisha thank you for the information! I’ve finally decided to apply to UCSD, because of the programs they offered. So you said you’ve visited the campus before, why didn’t you like it? Yeah I’ve heard that it isn’t as social as well, because people there are too focused studying
More info on Davis (our daughter loves it)
Davis is a college town in between Sacramento (20 minutes east) and Berkeley (1 hour west).
Davis has a beautiful huge campus. There are 40K bikes at Davis. You can bike anywhere and everywhere around the town (in fact they encourage bikes, parking for cars is limited). Rents in the area can be split, but there are a LOT of apartments and condo’s around the school. Most people, including the professors, bike to class. The train runs through the town, so you can walk several blocks from campus to the train. Its a very safe, student-run community.
UCSD is hard to bike. It is in the community of La Jolla Village. Yes it is in “La Jolla” but not over near the “cove area”. Getting to the “beach” area means a long walking trek, down the hill amongst a community of private home properties, then having to walk back up a long hill. Its in San Diego, so you do need a car if you want to get out of the immediate area. Transportation is not good. The look of UCSD surprises students because it looks like a bunch of office buildings. Does not “look” like a university. It does not lend itself for lots of social activities and can be really socially dead at times. Lots of commuters.
UCI is a large “commuter” university. My friend’s dd did not like it. She went through the motions to graduate, but had all of her social activities off campus. Its buildings are in a hilly area. There is a strip mall across the main street. If you want to travel in the area, you need a friend with a car to get around efficiently.
Everyone always bashes on SD for not being social enough, and I have to say those people don’t really know what they are talking about, they just spread this rumor of it not being social enough without actually being a part of the school, so don’t listen to them. It’s about you as a person, if you’re social you’ll have no problem finding friends and parties. As far as the campus goes, it’s pretty huge. If you plan on walking be prepared to wear comfortable shoes. For example, I live at the Village which is at the most northern point on campus, if you wan’t to walk to Geisel Library which is at the center of campus, it’s going to take you about 10 mins (I believe it’s about .6 miles according to my fitbit) however if you want to bike, the school has built new bike lanes to accommodate bikers. Also, for those who do not want to walk so much, we have two shuttles that drive to the 6 colleges. The area is absolutely beautiful and the beach is a 10 min walk away.
Some cons (however subjective): Getting around SD is possible via public transportation (our bus pass lets you on all buses and trolleys in SD, but it is a lot easier if you or your friends have a car. Uber/lyft is great too if you have $$) If you want to live off campus it’s not very cheap around the UTC area. Because our campus is so big try not to have your classes back to back as going from Revelle to Warren in 10 minutes is not very possible unless you jog or bike there lol.
I just finished my first quarter here (3rd year transfer) Poli Sci/IR major and so far the IR classes that I have taken are pretty great. I highly suggest brushing up on your writing skills, and as far from what I’ve heard/experienced is that most Poli Sci courses grade you heavily on your midterm/final (which are usually take-home papers) Midterm is usually 40% of your grade and your final is worth 50%.
OH and be prepared to read A LOT. I’ll break down how my U.S. foreign policy class panned out last quarter: we were assigned 4 articles/wk that each were about 40-50 pgs each and then were quizzed on 2 of the articles/lecture. For our midterm we were given the titles of 10 articles that were assigned from the first 5 weeks and had to choose 8 to summarize (each had to be at least a page long, you’re given 2 hrs so not that bad as long as you kept up with the reading). And our Final was a take-home essay that required you to analyze 3 regions of U.S. foreign policy and relate them to one another.
@Vidal essential thanks for your input on SD, the “socially-dead” talk doesnt worry me. I’m hoping my husband gets in, it’s one of our top choices, especially because of the area.
@“aunt bea” thank you so much for the information! It really helped me a lot. Davis sounds really good and I wish I could go there too! Apparently Ive decided to apply to UCSD. Because they have a combination of my major and minor. Thank you so much!
@vidaless thank you so much for the information and advice! I really appreciate it. And I’m glad finally I’ve found a transfer student who is doing this major. Do you mind if I ask some questions?
Where did you transfer from? Are all transfer students required to stay at the Village or are we allowed to live in the college dorms too? Which college did you enroll in? Is the community over there diverse?
I actually heard some comments like transfer students who live in the Village are usually “left out” from the college that they’re enrolled in. As in they do not get opportunities to hang around with the other students from the same college as much as the freshmen who are living there Is it true?
