UCSD in General

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
1

<p>There's probably a lot of these threads on this site concerning UCSD, but I'm going to make one anyways since there are different opinions about this school. I recently went on a tour on this school, and I gotta say, it was by far one of the greatest tours that I have yet taken. I'm going to start listing some of the features that I found were amazing of this school and to throw off some myths that some have of UCSD.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>School itself:
In my opinion, UCSD is a pretty huge school. It's probably bigger than UCLA and Cal. To get from one side to the other would probably take you 20-30 minutes (and that's probably not including the many hills around the campus.) The buildings are all spread out and there's a lot of trees in and around the campus.
There are six colleges that makes UCSD: Revelle, Muir, Warren, ERC, Marshall, and Sixth. Each colleges has its own GE requirements that fit into your liking. From what I heard, Muir is probably the "chillest" college of them all, but I could be wrong. Revelle is probably the most challenging of the six colleges, since you need more GEs to satisfy its requirements, which is usually in the science and math category. Revelle is also more suited for those seeking to go to grad school, but that goes for every college as well. Again, my view of Revelle being the most challenging may vary because it may vary from person to person.
UCSD is one of the most prestigious universities that excels in both education and research. If you’re an engineering or biological type of person, UCSD is a great school for you. UCSD is up there with UCLA, Cal, and the Ivy schools in reseach, engineering, and the biological sciences. If you’re a biological type of person, UCSD has many resources for you in regards to education, research, and internships. Hey, being 5 minutes away from one of the most premier research facilities such as SALK, and Scripps Institute is a major plus if you plan to major in the biological sciences. For those engineering prospects, there are so many opportunities for you in San Diego. IMO, there are more opportunities for you as an engineer at SD then at LA or Cal because SD is always a developing city, with new projects occurring frequently. How do I know this? I’m from SD :D</p></li>
<li><p>Location:
Location is obviously an important key factor in deciding what college you want to go to. UCSD is located a good walk from the beach and the weather is absolutely beautiful. It is super rare for it to rain here. And if you do go to SD and you like the winter feeling, the mountains are a good hour drive from UCSD, where you can find plenty of snow when a storm rolls along in the winter. Overall, the weather at SD is a perfect.</p></li>
<li><p>Debunking the myths about UCSD
i.) University of California of the Socially Dead?
The myth that I find the most retarded of them all is the idea that some view SD as a socially dead school. That is not true at all. There are so many things to do at SD! There is the beach, you have downtown five minutes away, UTC (mall in la jolla, pretty big) is a good drive away, mountains are an hour away, and if you feel like heading towards LA or Mexico, it’s a good hour or so to get there. There is a bunch of clubs available on campus that may go into your liking. Party-wise, UCSD does have parties, but you got to look for them. It’s not SDSU status, but it still does have decent amount of parties. One of the most important parties that happen at UCSD is the Sungod festival. You have a bunch of big name bands playing in the Sungod festival. Know what the great part about the Sungod festival? ITS FREE! There is a greek system at UCSD, but it’s way different from the regular greek houses you’ll find at other colleges. The greek system does hold parties occasionally and events.</p></li>
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<p>ii.) Too Many Ugly People!
Bull****. Total BS. The school is not filled with ugly people like the way I thought it was going to be. From all the rumors I was getting, I was expecting a bunch of dorky nerds going around campus. I found more hot chicks at UCSD then I did at Irvine or LA (I’m a guy, so I only paid attention to the girls only. Girls, if you have opinions on the guys, post it here!) Everyone dresses like the usual Cali dude/dudette. Hey, can’t blame them that they live under the sun almost every single day! Again, its not like SDSU status or something like that. There are certain amount of “ugly people,” but its not that huge of a deal or the way I thought it was going to be.</p>

<p>Overall, those who view SD as ugly and socially dead must be those who don’t know how to find a great time. They must be in their dorms everyday, studying every single minute of their lives at SD. There’s a lot of nice people to meet with and there’s always something to do at SD. You just gotta find them! </p>

<p>If you have any questions regarding UCSD, post them up and I’ll answer them to my best of my abilities. I’m not a student there, but I do know a lot about the school. Ask about the food, dorms, classes, sports, social scene, weather, what to do at SD, location, education, classes, etc. I’ve been through all of that at SD even though I’m not a student :D</p>

2

<p>Great post, I just have to clarify a couple things…</p>

<p>1.“Revelle is also more suited for those seeking to go to grad school, but that goes for every college as well.”</p>

<p>Get rid of the first part of that sentence and it will be true. Every graduating student, regardless of college, is getting a UCSD degree, not an individual college degree. Get a high GPA and do well on tests and that will affect your ability to get into grad schools - NOT your college.</p>

<ol>
<li>“There is a greek system at UCSD, but it’s way different from the regular greek houses you’ll find at other colleges. The greek system does hold parties occasionally and events.”</li>
</ol>

<p>You’d actually be surprised how similar the greek system is here compared to other large greek systems. The only difference is we don’t have housing. I’d like to also correct the above by saying that the Greek system holds parties where ALL students are invited “occasionally”… if you actually join a Greek organization, there will be many social options almost every day of the week for you to partake in.</p>

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<p>Another thing to clarify. If a highway patrol officer sees you attempting to make it from UCSD to downtown in 5 minutes, you will get your license taken away.</p>

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<p>hahahahahahahahha</p>

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<p>more like 2 hrs to LA</p>

6

<p>@Kings hahahaha</p>

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<p>actually, i’d have to ask ucsandiego
I am a prospective freshman
and i’ve heard that although going to any specific college will not help you get into any graduate school because essentially you graduate with a ucsd degree
but revelle does have ge requirements that make a well rounded studentthat look appealing to graduate schools
That’s what i’ve heard , can you tell me if its true ?</p>

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<p>Well I don’t know if it is “true” because I am not a grad school admissions officer. However, I highly doubt that if they are debating whether to admit Student A from Revelle or Student B from Muir, that they would choose Student A simply because he was a Revelle grad. Colleges are simply not as big of a deal as people make them out to be. </p>

<p>Revelle has tough GE requirements, but so does ERC. And so does Sixth if you’re an engineering major (you’d definitely be well rounded then!) It’s kind of a tough argument, if you see what I mean. Grad schools look at test scores and GPA, not colleges. I’m sure other people have the opposite opinion as me though.</p>

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<p>I’m totally agreeing with you here. I am pretty sure that they don’t look at what college you went to. But what college you go to determine what GE requirements you take. So indirectly saying, the college you go to doesn’t affect admittance, but the courses you take do. I don’t know if GE requirements differ highly between each college, and simply these are all hypothesis that don’t have any true evidence to support it :slight_smile:
Just my two cents on the process.</p>

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<p>as an actual graduate student, i can tell you from my experience with applications that NOBODY cares what college you went to at ucsd. many people don’t even know there’s a college system. there’s no room for it on the application, since they’re interested to see which university you came from and what you managed to do with your time there. and sure, the GEs vary by college, but lower-division courses are not the important parts of your transcript. does anyone care if you took “warren writing” instead of “dimensions of culture” ? these are ucsd-specific terms, and nobody else will care what it was other than a freshman writing class. every school has one and calls it their own silly name.</p>

<p>i’ve been in grad school for four years and the ONLY time i talk about colleges is with other ucsd graduates i happen to come across.</p>

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<p>I like this post:)
It’s good to get things all cleared up:)</p>

<p>@E7Fan
are you planning on going to ucsd?:)</p>

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<p>Hey E7Fan, how much would you spend a month on off campus rent + food? Are music clubs very active?</p>

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<p>^I have my own room in a nice apartment off campus and I spend around $1000 just on rent and utilities, and then an extra couple hundred bucks/month on food. However I have friends whose rent is like, $500 or even $450. It depends how many people you’re sharing the house/apartment with and how nice it is :)</p>

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<p>The only issues that made me cross UCSD off the list was that it’s a lot further south, and offcampus living tends to be a little more expensive.</p>

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<p>@ Jaayyen: Yes, I do plan to go to UCSD. I was undecided with UCSD and other colleges until I took the tour and did some research on my own. </p>

<p>@ BoogieEngineer: I am guessing that music clubs are active at UCSD. When I was there, I got a bunch of these fliers about joining a bunch of different music clubs. The most common of them was that techno type of music. I won’t be able to answer your other question because I’ll be living on campus for the next two years, so I don’t know how much I’ll spend on off campus rent. If you’re talking about off campus food, I’d say about 40-60 dollars a month? Prob. less. There’s a bunch of places to eat in SD, and I can see myself eating all over SD haha</p>

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<p>Yeah, La Jolla is the ‘ritzy’ area of the city so it tends to be very pricey. But University City is where most of the students live and it’s a little cheaper, parts of it are dirt cheap, and there are tons of buses (UCSD shuttles and MTS buses) for you to take to campus.</p>

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<p>@ wahine, if you’re considering LA or Irvine, it’s almost the same situation with the off-campus price. UCLA is located in a very rich area (Bel-Air, Beverly Hills), so you may happen to have higher rent over there. Irvine is probably less cheaper the SD and LA, but I think it’s probably still at a high rent because of it’s location.</p>

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<p>Yeah we’re considering LA because of its 2 hours closer, and I really like big cities as well. In terms of rent, i think it was a presumption by my parents.</p>

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<p>hey is it true that nonscience majors like in erc are looked down upon by the science major kids who are in warren/revelle?</p>

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<p>^No, we get poked fun of sometimes but it’s all in good humor. People who go to UCSD are smart across the board.</p>