<p>What's up with UC Irvine? I have many Asian friends who attend this school and they are extremely unhappy. I mean, UC Irvine is a Top 50 university and it's only 40 years old! Yet, i've never seen so many Chinese people with inferioirty complexes. Why does UC Irvine have such a bad reputation? </p>
<p>I'm also curious why UCSD is considered a "much better" university than irvine. I mean, UC Berkeley and UCLA are almost considered on the same plateau prestige-wise, but there seems to be a pretty wide gap between SD and irvine.</p>
<p>I think UCI is a great school (a bit underrated). I don't think many people think that UCSD is "much better". They are on equal terms or perhaps some kids think UCSD is a "bit better". Personally I think they are about equal. Also I think a lot of people on this board think Berkeley > UCLA but usually by a small margin. CC members concentrate mostly on the Top Colleges you find in the link so UCI doesn't get much recognition on CC.com but that doesn't mean it isn't a good school.</p>
<p>Yeah, Asian ppl (especially East Asians, e.g. Chinese and Koreans) are very obsessed with academic prestige and elitism so they tend to make a big deal out of little things. Though it's funny that most Asians I know don't really see much difference between UC Berkeley or UCLA, but they act as though UCSD was Berkeley and UC Irvine was a Cal State school...</p>
<p>To be fair, a lot of Caucasians too care about prestige. Blacks and Hispanics on the other hand don't seem obsessed with going to brand name schools as much as just getting a solid quality education--regardless of the name of the institution. Perhaps it's just b/c generally speaking, ppl have higher expectations of Asians so there's this constant pressure for Asian ppl to overachieve and attend the top schools only. It's just either go to a top notch school, or you're doomed to a life of not necessarily failure, but mediocrity. Of course, I know plenty of ppl who live "mediocre" lives, making about $40k-$50k, but they're very happy b/c they like what they are doing and have good families. </p>
<p>I agree that Irvine prolly gets a bad rep in the So Cal area. Then again, I'm prolly not your typical ultra-ambitious Asian: I view ANY school in the Top 50 as offering a great education (and a good reputaiton to boot). I still don't understand why schools below the Top 25-30 but hovering around the US News Top 40-50 get reviled and treated as though they're no better than fourth tier universities.</p>
<p>Overall, there's this general obsession--to the point that it becomes disturbing--that going to brand name schools will be the ticket to success of life and that if you get a degree from a prestigious, brand name school, then you can get any job (or woman) you desire. These ppl point to statistical evidence of numerous prominent alumni who graduate from these prestigious institutions and are now in positions of influence. They also point to evidence that the highest paying jobs (i-banking, management consulting, etc.) often are full of prestigious school grads. </p>
<p>I simply don't agree w/ this mentality. To analogize, some of the worst products I bought and used were from brand name companies. Many of the worst movies I've seen lately were hyped as Hollywood blockbusters w/ big stars, etc. the point is, much of the crap I've had came from supposed brand name stuff. Sometimes, the best things in life come not from brand name companies, but from the most unknown kinds. Many of the best movies I've seen in life starred amateur actors and had budget prolly below $1m. And many of the ppl I had the most respect for in life graduated from lowly state universities.</p>
<p>Indeed, I have earlier posted 30 successful Asian-Americans who broke the glass ceiling and thrived despite not having the power of Ivy League or other degrees from prestigious universities backing them up. And I excluded from the list those who went to no-name schools undergrad, but "redeemed" themselves by going to brand name graduate programs.</p>
<p>i can't really speak to the quality of the science and pre-professional programs at uc-irvine, but it might interest some to know that irvine is probably "much better" than ucsd in the humanities. many of the literature departments, especially english/comparative literature and french, the creative writing program, visual/film studies are among the finest, and by far the most innovative, in the country. philosophy is also very good. irvine has far more superstar faculty in the humanities than ucsd (though uscd has a great mfa program, and is certainly not weak in anything) and the administration recruits star faculty across the disciplines more heavily than ucsd, and probably any other uc, which is not to say it is better than berkeley or ucla, which are located in places far more hospitable to most academics averse to the cultural wasteland of orange county. </p>
<p>but, as we know, having star faculty does not necessarily translate into offering a great education., so take from this what you will.</p>
<p>if you look at graduate program rankings for departments you will see a large difference between uc berkeley, ucla, ucsd and then the next step down to uci. at the undergraduate level they are all excellent schools, but uci lags significantly behind ucsd in the number of highly ranked graduate programs. also if you look at the admission stats difference between ucsd and uci at the undergraduate level, you will see that the average admit to ucsd is closer to a ucla student than a uci student with ucsd admits averaging well over a 4.0 capped gpa as are uc berkeley and ucla students, yet uci students average hovers around a 3.8. also uci's average admit sat is over a hundred points lower than ucsd. i think thats why ucsd is looked at as significantly better than uci. that being said, uci is an excellent institution, just not quite on the level of a ucsd or ucla, especially for graduate school. i have personally attended both ucsd and ucla, and i found both to be extremely challenging and very competitive. i would imagine the uci would not be too far behind in competiveness, although i cant say as i havent attended uci.</p>