<p>@fncrane you’re totally welcome; I vividly remember what it was like to be in your position so I’m glad I can help. In terms of why I transferred I posted this awhile back in another thread…</p>
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<p>"UCI was a fantastic experience. Given the chance to do it all over again I think I’d still have gone to UCI with the options that I had out of high school. Actually, up until the end of May I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to leave. That’s the thing though, I kind of didn’t want to leave because I had such a great time but, I recognized that a degree from Cal or UCLA would definitely open doors for me that would have been harder to open with a UCI degree.</p>
<p>UCI is a friendly campus. It is competitive but in a cooperative kind of way; you won’t hear about kids pulling fire alarms before O-chem finals to sabotage the students. People are willing to help you. Some students complain that the campus is “boring” but I’d think a more accurate way to describe it is “predictable”. For me, that predictability to daily campus life was actually really nice because I like following schedules. And, if you’re the partying sort, there’s always something going on somewhere.</p>
<p>One thing that bothered me was the lack of school spirit. Most students on our campus attribute that to the lack of a football team, which is definitely part of it, but I think the bigger reason is that UCI wasn’t necessarily everybody’s first choice. At the age we’re at, it’s pretty foolish to let other people’s opinions affect us but I’ll admit that it certainly got to me. Occasionally I found myself in conversations about UCI and where somebody would ask “so what was your first choice university?”. I watched as my friends’ expressions shifted into longing, thinking of places they’d dreamed of being and of the people they could’ve been.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that UCI doesn’t set you up to be great. I just said goodbye to a few friends that are going from UCI to places like Harvard law and UCLA medical school. If you work hard at UCI, you will succeed. If nothing else, most of the professors at UCI are very fair and they are incredibly intelligent and approachable. Ultimately I chose to leave not because I didn’t like UCI but because there is a chance that my UCLA degree will help me in the future. Plus, I think IT’s are incredibly lucky because we get to enjoy “freshman” year twice. There’s nothing quite like your first year of college unless you get to do it again. But of course, the main point is, I really liked UCI, I just felt that for me personally UCLA offered me something that I was just missing at UCI. (Well, and so did Cal to an even greater degree but that’s a whole other story)"</p>
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<p>As you can see there’s some Berkeley angst built in in there but I’ve resolved that now haha. Looking back on the whole experience I know I can say that I did find a lot of the things that I was looking for (school spirit, more activities, etc.) here at UCLA and for that I’m glad. But, I also lost a lot like my connections with some of my favorite professors and research opportunities. </p>
<p>Wanting to fulfill old dreams is definitely legitimate. Lots of people at Irvine told me that UCLA or Cal had been their first choice and that they felt like they were settling at Irvine. I think that pressure got to me and pushed me to leave UCI. In my case everything worked out fine; I’ve already been accepted to grad school so I’m just enjoying my remaining time here at UCLA. However, for me, if I still had the pressure excel at UCLA that way I did at Irvine, I don’t know if I would’ve enjoyed my experience very much. Oh, and I’m a poli sci major, I hope this helped!</p>