<p>I know statewide, schools are getting budget cuts. I'm just wondering how it has affected UCI (and perhaps you directly). Is it harder to get classes? Are there fewer opportunities available?</p>
<p>It is somewhat harder to get classes than say, years ago, not really sure how much it’s changed between last year and this year or something (currently a freshman). But costs are going up to go here, like, it shot up 30 percent between last school year and this year and it’s going up another 8 percent next year (and as optimistic as I may be, perhaps more in the future). Don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure there have been more unit restrictions, meaning there’s been more holds on the max number of classes you can take per quarter, which might have not been there before, and yeah, there’s really not much positive to all of this either. As of now though, there hasn’t been any really big problem, like, you’re not going to go through a quarter without any classes or anything (as they won’t even let you) and it’s not like the classrooms are getting any more crowded than needed to be (the classes that used to have hundreds still have hundreds). If you’re really concerned, private schools might be a better option, but at the same time, nothing here has changed drastic enough for you to not go here and there is a strong part of me saying that through the four years here, there will be that recovery from the recession…Anywho, I’ve only been here a year, or not even one, so not sure how much of all that was even factual, except for the fact that fees have been on a really steep hike for the last couple years. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’m a third year and I got into UCI right before the budget cuts took effect.</p>
<p>First, the cuts tend to vary by department. I’m a science major, so the effects actually haven’t been that bad. It seems like 75% of your major classes are the same few required, so you can’t cut those. There are typically so few electives (at least diverse ones) that they aren’t cut. No fat to trim it seems.
Although I noticed the math department hasn’t offered a lot of the exotic interesting classes I’ve been looking at (theory of differ eq, linear programming, and graph theory).
My friends in other departments have said other things. English and cog sci, for example, aren’t as structured, so they typically offered more electives to work into your interests. These electives have been cut as its just not cost effective to run a class with 7 students in it. </p>
<p>Obviously, the tuition has gone up quite a bit. I would consider looking at private school. There were a few protests last year, but I didn’t know what they were demanding. We all want lower tuition, but someone has to pay for it…</p>
<p>And looking at the numbers, it seems UCI is enrolling less students. My year seem to be just under 5000 students enrolled. This previous year enrolled just over 4000…</p>
<p>I think it was always harder to get into classes, but it seems worse… although I’m not sure.</p>
<p>And what do you mean by opportunities? Things like getting into a research lab is easy to do. Volunteer opportunities are also available if you look (Santa Ana and Tustin are not as well off as Irvine).</p>
<p>Its hard to get into classes you want with the teachers you want (Try getting into Famiglietti for Math. Had to pray for days before I got off the waitlist). We all got this threatening email about Organic Chem classes being cut next year too.</p>
<p>Can’t say I agree with the other posters. UCI feels pretty much the same to me as it always has. I honestly haven’t had any trouble getting any classes, and it’s just as easy to get involved with research or other programs on campus.</p>