So I am currently deciding between UC Irvine and UCSD. I know UCSD is a slightly better school, but I would prefer not to go there because I live in San Diego, and I would prefer to go to a new place. I would say I’m leaning towards UC Irvine but I’m not certain yet. I have a couple questions which I think could help me decide:
I have heard UC Irvine is a commuter school. How true is this? In my opinion, it seems unlikely that a school as good as UC Irvine could be true commuter school, simply because there not enough students that live close by that could get good enough grades to be admitted. Also, when I visited last weekend, the students I talked to said that about 80% of freshmen at least live on campus. This would mean Irvine is not a commuter school the same way a lot of the CSUs are.
How good are both schools in political science/economics, which is the field I want to study? I plan to go to law school, so I would like to study a one of those fields in order to prepare for law school.
I don’t know what the technical definition of a commuter school is, but there are a lot of UCI students who live off-campus in IAC apartments and also a lot of students who commute from home. The Irvine public high schools are all excellent, so they contribute a lot of students. But I’ve known students who commuted from as far south as Dana Point/San Clemente and as far north as Long Beach. There are a lot of students that live within that radius.
And students who live on campus but live within a reasonable distance from campus (say within an hour or so) often go home on the weekends if there isn’t anything going on.
@alicantekid I am mainly asking about Freshmen who commute. Most UC schools have people who move off campus after their sophomore year. Do you know the percentage of freshmen who commute/live off campus? Do you also know the percentage of freshmen who live on campus but go home every weekend? Is it a significant portion?
According to 2017 Common set UCI stats, 78% of incoming freshmen live in dorms. So roughly 5100 out of 6500 or so incoming freshmen.
@ProfessorPlum168. But what percentage of those freshmen go home almost every weekend?
@Jason101200: That data would not be available. There will still be plenty of students that prefer not or cannot go home on weekends and will remain on campus and this will be true for UCSD also.
UCI has a rep of being a suitcase college. It’s considered a stigma to its rep. Probably more so a suitcase school tha UCSD in rep. You would be one of ones carrying the suitcase in SD.
If you know kids at these schools—ask.
My one son went to a “suitcase” school. But it was in a large hopping city that made it a moot point for him.
While students might not commute to campus on a daily basis, many live in Southern California and go home on weekends. That said, there are plenty of people who stay so focus on the positive and not the negative.
If you went to UCSD, how often do you think you would go home on the weekends?
@ikg4answers I don’t plan to go home very often if i’m at UCSD. I may do it occasionally, but I really want to stay most weekends to experience dorm life. Do you think UCSD has a lot less people leave on the weekends? If so, I may choose UCSD.
Don’t choose a school based on an approximation of how many people stay on weekends and how many go home. If you stay, you will make friends with others who stay and it will be a moot point.