<p>For anybody that currently goes there or went there, how was your experience as a transfer at UCSD? How was your experience living in The Villages? I've heard UCSD doesn't really have a thriving social life compared to some other UC's such as LA or Berkeley.</p>
<p>I transferred to and graduated from UCSD last year and lived in The Village for that year (plus the previous summer.) I’m a social person, but yeah, UCSD isn’t exactly kicking. I’m from SD anyway and most weekends went back up to where I grew up to hang out with my friends.</p>
<p>As a san diego resident, UCSD seems like a socially average school. Obviously Grimes99 knows best, but I wouldn’t say that it’s too much worse than UCLA or Berkeley. Though it is slighly less “kicking” I suppose. However, there seem to be a lot of good clubs and pubs and la jolla is great- traffic’s bad though.</p>
<p>As an introvert, I believe it usually gets an “average” rating because just miles away is SDSU, which is on the other end of the spectrum. I think you can actually major in beer pong there- jk. But yeah they get compared with one another all the time and I feel like UCSD gets typecast as the non-SDSU. It probably comes down to you and how you prioritize socially/academically, so really it’s up to you, as long as you don’t mind the atmosphere, which I’ll admit, seems slightly less active than LA or Berkeley. Great school though.</p>
<p>I know it’s cliche, but you get what you put in. There are events, clubs, orgs, student activities, parties, even a few bars on campus, etc so there are things going on all the time you just have to look for them. I guess the one thing that UCSD lacks is a greek row where all the greek houses are that tend to be party central on most campuses. That and D1 sports which tend to liven things up a whole lot. That being said there’s still plenty to do and San Diego having one of the top 20 largest metropolitan areas in the nation, it isn’t like you can’t find things within a couple miles from campus. I’m not much of a party person myself, but Pacific Beach is just 3 exits down the I-5 and is party mecca for a lot of UCSD students. Things I like to participate in that keep me from burning out throughout the week Open Mic nights at the Loft, IM sports (flag football games are surprisingly intense), movie screenings, scouting out whatever club/org meetings offer free pizza, going to get a drink at Porter’s Pub, etc. </p>
<p>As far as the Village, I live by myself off campus and I love it. It’s amazing not having to share a bathroom, kitchen, living room with 3-4 other people and a room with someone else. By word of mouth though living in the Village is a great way of meeting people and the Village has it’s own student orgs that are constantly throwing events to get people to socialize. Just be comfortable living with someone in your room (getting a single is pretty much impossible your first quarter). Oh! And one other thing you don’t have access to at UCLA / Berkeley that you do from UCSD, a beach that’s a 10-15 min walk down the road. Black’s is awesome for surfing from spring to early fall and it’s great to just go hang out there (be careful not to wander too far north though! You’ve been warned). Scripps / Black’s >>> Santa Monica. And Berkeley doesn’t have any decent beaches. And we have the Sun God festival every spring which is one of the larger music festivals in southern california. Sun God usually is great at new up and coming bands before they’re big. Some of the names that have played Sun God are Drake, Big Sean, Silversun Pick Ups, My Chemical Romance Coheed and Cambria, Mike Posner, Wiz Khalifa, Neon Trees, Sarah Barielles, Third Eye Blind, T.I. etc.
<a href=“http://sungodfestival.ucsd.edu/[/url]”>Sun God Festival 2023;
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_God_Festival[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_God_Festival</a></p>
<p>Any specific questions feel free to ask. I like to procrastinate from midterms / class assignments on here still. </p>
<p>Here are a few links that you can check out as far as events on campus:
[Student</a> Events Insider - November 23rd, 2012 - Week 9 Fall 2012](<a href=“University Centers - Price Center and Student Center”>http://studentevents.ucsd.edu/)
The first week of the new academic year is Welcome Week and there’s about a million things to do then so that’s always great:
[UCSD</a> Welcome Week](<a href=“University Centers - Price Center and Student Center”>http://welcomeweek.ucsd.edu/)</p>
<p>Not so boring, are we? Hahaha</p>
<p>All of the friends I know at UCSD love it there. For some reason, people on College Confidential give the school a bad rap. I visited the campus during the summer and loved it. Do most transfers live at The Village their first year?</p>
<p>I heard that you can’t choose your roommate in the Village? Is this true? Can someone confirm please?</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, UCSD wasn’t awful, but it’s not a place I made a point to stay at most weekends. Sun God was fun, but that’s one day out of the school year. The bars on campus (Porters and Home Plate) are decent, but the whole culture of UCSD isn’t geared toward super social. The Village in particular is borderline dead, and I lived there for 12 months. I had fun with my roommates and stuff, but parties are heavily cracked down on (i.e. they don’t happen, and if they do they’re guaranteed to be rolled quickly.) They have weird rules, like you can have alcohol in the room if you’re 21+, but you can’t play beer pong or any other drinking games at all. </p>
<p>My goal was to graduate in a year with a 4.0, so partying and living the college life wasn’t exactly something I couldn’t live with out. In that sense, The Village worked well for me, as it was (mostly) quiet and made walking to class easy.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve probably spent more time at UCLA over the past 6 years (friends and cousin went there) than I did in my time at UCSD. UCLA was light years ahead of UCSD socially, and I’m not sure how it can be argued otherwise. Not too sure about Berkley, as I’ve only been there a couple times.</p>
<p>@HockeyGiant: The campus is nice, it’s just not a “lively” school. Most transfers live off campus, but there are quite a few at The Village. It’s pretty expensive to live there, though. I think it averaged to around $1,200 a month for the 9 months you’re there. Granted, that’s all-inclusive and includes dining dollars, but it’s still expensive. </p>
<p>@bhargav12: You’re given a day for room selection, so if you want to room with someone you can both pick the same apartment if you can find one with two available spots. Note that new transfers select after those who have already been at The Village for a year, so your pickings are a bit more slim.</p>
<p>What Grimes said is pretty spot on. I guess my point was, there’s no reason for you to get bored here. There are plenty of things to do if you go out looking for them. To me the biggest difference between here and somewhere like UCLA is UCLA has so much going on that it’s hard not to get involved in something socially. Also, the party scene isn’t even close. If you want to party day in and day out don’t come to UCSD. Campus police and RSOs tend to be pretty strict about parties, most people go off campus for them. That was never really an issue for me because my primary focus has always been academics. That and I’m not much of a binge drinker, regardless. So for me UCSD is great because it finds a nice middle ground between the two. </p>
<p>Also, the campus does tend to the feel pretty quiet the back half of the quarter. Especially, on the weekends. I think a big reason for this is UCSD is a massive campus and everyone is pretty spread out. We have about 6000 less students than a campus like UCLA spread over an area that’s 5 times bigger. Effectively, there’s less population density so things can feel “dead” at times. That said though again, your social life is what you make of it. If you’re constantly talking to people and looking out for things to do you’re going to have fun. If you’re not and are more reserved, but still want to have a great social life then UCSD is not your place. You have to engage with the community and the people for that. Whereas there are other campuses like UCLA which are more active in that regard to where the community engages you just being there.</p>
<p>@HockeyGiant
I actually think most transfers do live at the Village their first year. It seems like the vast majority of transfers I’ve met live there. Also, I don’t see that many first year transfers on the shuttles that go around off campus. People tend to move off campus their second year. But I would definitely say the vast majority of first year transfers I’ve talked to are living at the Village. That being said I think off campus is something that all first years should explore. I did it and I love it. Depending on where you live you can live somewhere a lot nicer, cheaper, and with more personal space than if you do on campus. And if you live in University City/UTC area there are shuttles that come around that take just a few minutes to get to campus.</p>
<p>Say you sign up to live in the Village and when it’s your time to pick a spot they don’t have any single bedrooms, are you stuck just picking from what they have available or can you then decide to live off campus?</p>
<p>@UCBhopeful16: You can decide to live off campus at that point.</p>
<p>Sweet deals. I’ll be 25 when I transfer and I’ll turn 26 not too long after. I could not imagine having to share a room with somebody else but I do like the Villages and feel that really would be a good way to get to meet other people.</p>
<p>I transferred when I was 23, turned 24 when I was there. No way was I willing to share a room. I met a couple people at The Village, but the way they crack down on parties and what not made it difficult to have “social” events.</p>
<p>@UCBhopeful16
If I remember correctly there is a significant fee or deposit to submit the housing app, which is non-refundable. I think it’s due around the end of June. Initially, I wanted to live on campus but not having a single, like in Grimes’ case, was unacceptable to me. I was going to submit the app with the fee and try my chances on the wait list, but it wasn’t worth risking it financially. You’ll have to look into it more but I think the fee was around a few hundred dollars.
Edit: Just looked it up. The housing contract fee is $650 so be prepared to pay and be seriously wanting to live on campus when you submit it. For me it wasn’t worth it for a slim chance at getting a single. That’s close to some people’s rent living off campus.</p>
<p>Well, there goes that idea. I don’t think I would risk it. I’ll probably end up just living off campus.</p>